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potential loss of affordable rental housing for seniors (please see Attachment 7 for the <br />Planning Commission meeting minutes). <br />1. "Bona fide" resident conversion: The SMA requires the Park owner to "obtain a <br />survey of support of residents...for the proposed conversion" [Subsection (d) to <br />Section 66427.5 set forth on Attachment 8]. The intent of this section is to <br />prevent a "sham conversion" and to ensure that a conversion under this Section <br />be a "bona fide resident conversion". A "sham conversion" is a conversion <br />completed as a way to exempt a mobile home park from applicable rent control <br />provisions by processing a condominiurrr map but selling only one or very few <br />lots. However, the term "bona fide resident conversion" is not clearly defined and <br />the SMA does not state what the level of support, if any, is required in order for <br />the conversion to "bona fide." In this instance, the Park owner obtained a survey <br />of support of the residents. (A copy of the survey can be found in <br />Attachment 10). The residents were given three choices: support for the <br />conversion, don't support the conversion; and decline to respond at this time. <br />There were 119 responses to the surveys; 41 in support, 39 not in support, and <br />38 who "declined to respond at this time." <br />The applicant contends, based on case law, the statutory language of Section 66427.5 <br />itself, and the legislative history of that statute, including the amendment to the statute <br />in 2002, that there is no threshold requirement as to the number of residents who must <br />support the conversion in order for the conversion to be bona fide (please see <br />Attachment 3). The Commission, in denying the application, relied on its interpretation <br />of the legislative history of the amendments to Section 66427.5 and other sections of <br />the SMA, to reach a different conclusion (please see Attachment 7, pages 16-20.) <br />2. Loss of affordable rental housing: If the application is approved, the Park owner <br />may begin to sell the lots after ten years. The current residents will be given the <br />right of first refusal to purchase their lots; those who choose not to purchase their <br />lots may continue to reside in the Park and continue to pay rent. Rent increases <br />thereafter will be set by Section 66427.5 and depends on the income of the <br />household. Rent increases for lower-income households will be tied generally to <br />cost-of-living increases, but rents for households that are not lower income will <br />rise to "market value" (as determined by the Park owner), phased in over a <br />five-year period. But as then current residents move out or die, any new resident <br />will be required to purchase a lot. Accordingly, over time, the City will lose what <br />has been affordable rental housing for seniors. On the other hand, the City may <br />well acquire affordable, for sale, housing for seniors. <br />In terms of for-sale affordable housing (land and building), the sales price for <br />households of 80 person of the median income is around $200,000 and for households <br />of 120 percent of the median income, around $300,000. Since the City does not know <br />at this time what the initial sales price for the lots to existing residents (ten years in the <br />future) will be, it is speculative as to whether the price just for the lots will fall within any <br />of ranges listed above. Moreover, because the new resident must purchase the lot and <br />Page 3 of 6 <br />