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the unit, and because the price for the unit will depend on the age and size of the unit, it would be even more speculative to know whether the sales price (land and unit) will fall within what will be considered "affordable" in ten years. These uncertainties as to the sales price in the future combined with the certain loss of affordable rental housing for seniors provided additional grounds for the Commission to deny the application. City Council Action Notwithstanding the decision of the Planning Commission to deny this application, staff recommends that the Council overturn the decision of the Commission and approve the application. Based on existing case law and the language of Section 66427.5, staff is of the opinion that the Council's scope of review is limited to whether the applicant has complied with Section 66427.5. Staff has listed the required findings in bold with staff's response in italics. The subdivider shall obtain a survey of support of residents of the mobile home park for the proposed conversion. (The survey shall be by written ballot, and the results of the survey submitted to the City, to be considered as part of this hearing.) In early 2008, a survey was sent to all residents. A copy of that survey is included in Attachment 10. City staff and a resident committee negotiated with the Park owner's representative the wording of the Survey. Residents were provided three options: support for the approval of a future change of ownership of the Park to a resident -owned condominium; decline to respond; and do not support the change of ownership. Residents were directed to return the survey directly to the City. (Only one response from each space is permitted under Section 66427.5). The statute (Attachment 8) is unclear on what the requirements are, if any, concerning the level of support that the residents must indicate in order for the conversion application to be approved. The appellants take the position, with some support from case law, that no particular percentage of residents needs show support in order to approve the application. Others believe that the purpose of the statute is to allow conversion to residential ownership only where a true majority of residents favor such conversion, and, therefore, there must be majority support of the residents in order to approve the conversion. Legislation has been introduced on several occasions to clarify this ambiguity, but none has been signed into law. Therefore the ambiguity remains. Of those who responded to the survey, a bare majority (52 percent) were in favor of the conversion. Accordingly, staff concludes that there was majority support for the conversion and recommends that this finding be made. Page 4 of 6