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LAW OFFICES <br />CiLCHRIST & Ri'TTI~7R <br />Y IiUPGti4I0\AL ('ORPORATIU\ <br />Karen Diaz <br />City Clerk <br />City of Pleasanton <br />March 6, 2009 <br />Page 3 <br />purchase. Local governments, such as the City of Pleasanton, cannot impose additional <br />restrictions. <br />Indeed, the El Dorado Court conclusively determined that: (i) Government Code section <br />66427.5 controls a mobilehome park Conversion from a rental park to a resident-owned park (Id <br />at 1158-63); (ii) the purpose of Government Code section 66427.5 is to provide uniform <br />statewide standards for converting rental parks into resident-owned parks, thereby promoting <br />Conversions to home ownership (Id. at 1 169-1170); (iii) the requirements set out in Government <br />Code section 66427.5 are exclusive and local government has no authority to impose additional <br />conditions (Id. at 1164, 1166); (iv) if the requirements of Government Code section 66427.5 at'e <br />met, the local agency must approve the Conversion application (Id. at 1165, 1167); (v) local <br />government does not have the ability or the authority to determine whether a Conversion is <br />"bona-fide" or not (Id. at 1165); and, (vi) mobilehome park residents do not have and cannot <br />have the ability to veto a Conversion by withholding support for a Conversion application (Id. at <br />1172, 1181-82). <br />Although a handful of local governments, in a misguided attempt to frustrate and delay <br />Conversions, have either passed illegal ordinances attempting to impermissibly regulate <br />Conversions or have approved illegal resolutions which have impermissibly denied applications <br />for Conversions, with one exception, these attempts have all failed. <br />"Thus far, this firm has obtained several writs of mandate from trial courts throughout <br />California, including Riverside County, Los Angeles County, San Mateo County, and Santa <br />Barbara County, compelling local governments to correct their illegal attempts to frustrate and <br />delay Conversions. Specifically, we have obtained writs (i) compelling two (2) local <br />governments to overturn resolutions which impermissibly denied Conversion applications for <br />their alleged failure to evidence resident support; (ii) invalidating a local ordinance that <br />attempted to impose illegal conditions on Conversions, such as requiring that applicants meet <br />certain health and safety requirements within the parks, provide certain maintenance documents <br />and engineering reports, and submit a tenant impact report containing extensive and burdensome <br />information not within the local government's proper discretion or consideration, in violation of <br />Section 66427.5; (iii) vacating a resolution requiring an Environmental Impact Report as part of <br />the Conversion process; (iv) vacating ordinances which imposed illegal temporary moratoriums <br />on Conversions, (v) overturning the requirement that: Conversions must comply with local <br />general plans and/or specific area plans, including affordable housing requirements; and, (vi) <br />~ The exception is with regards to the County of Sonoma in Sequoia Park Associates v. County <br />of Sonoma, Sonoma County Superior Court, Case No. SCV 240003. There, a temporary judge <br />issued abare-bones opinion less than one page long upholding Sonoma County's ordinance <br />regulating Conversions. This case is currently on appeal. <br />