PALO ALTO (KRON) — After two long years of fighting; the Palo Alto City Council could decide the future of the city’s only mobile home park Tuesday.
On November 12, 2012, the owner of the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park submitted an application to close the Park.
Since then, residents have fought the closure of the mobile home park, located in the 3900 block of El Camino Real.
According to the Friends of Buena Vista website, closing the mobile home park would result in the single greatest displacement of Palo Altans in the town’s history. About 400 people would lose their homes.
The website says that 129 children live in the community, and 99 are students in the Palo Alto School District.
Most of the people living at the mobile home park own their homes, but rent land from the owner.
The residents understand that the property owner is allowed to sell his property, but want to ensure that their futures are taken into account as well.
They would like to see if a way to buy all or part of the property with city, public and private funds may be possible.
Earlier in May, the Caritas corporation, a nonprofit organization that manages 20 mobile-home parks throughout California, offered their support to keep the mobile home park from closing. The Irvine based company has entered into a contract with Santa Clara County that will require the non-profit group to put together a purchase and sales agreement to buy the property from its current owner.
That help could be too late though.
Tuesday, the City Council is expected to vote on whether to formally approve the current owner’s application for closure. If that passes, the current owner will be able to start the 6-month eviction process for the park’s 400 residents.