By Jon Chown and Heidi Johnston
The fight is not nearly over, said residents of Castle Mobile Estates and Blue & Gold Star Mobile Home parks, but they will allow the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission to survey their mobile home lots that encroach on the Coastal Rail Project. The announcement was made July 19 in a statement from the residents of the mobile home parks.
“After extensive conversations among Capitola City Councilman Gerry Jensen, and housing advocate Cami Corvin, resident of Castle Mobile Estates, many of the residents have made the collective decision to allow the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) limited access to the property for surveying purposes,” the statement reads. “Many of our residents, including those who would face serious financial hardship, deserve to have their potential burdens fully understood and documented should the RTC move forward.”
Residents defend mobile and manufactured home space threatened by the Rail Trail project.
Corvin, who is mentioned in the statement, has been leading the fight against the county. The struggle stems from the fact that quite a few of the mobile home owners’ property lines encroach onto the Regional Transportation Commission’s property where the RTC is building Segments 10 and 11 (from 17th Avenue to State Park Drive) of the Monterey Bay Scenic Trail alongside the railroad tracks.
Residents, mostly seniors and others with limited income, were told they would have to pay the bill for relocating their mobile homes, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We stand united in this approach, knowing that without accurate data, the needs of our most vulnerable residents might be overlooked,” said Corvin in a prepared statement. “Our solidarity remains unwavering, and our priority continues to be protecting the community we’ve built here.”
Blue & Gold Star Mobile Home Park was built in 1965 and Castle Estates Mobile Home Park was built in 1971. There are 20 units that encroach at the 128-unit Blue and Gold Mobile Home Park in Live Oak, at the 108-unit Castle Mobile Estates in Capitola there are 24. Three removal estimates at Castle Mobile topped $76,000, with the highest at $224,000. At Blue & Gold, two of the estimates for removal cost more than $175,000.
Castle Mobile Estates
The RTC recently announced it would form an ad hoc committee with County Supervisors Kim De Serpa and Manu Koenig, along with Capitola City Councilmember Gerry Jensen, tasked with reviewing relocation assistance to park residents.
Residents of the mobile home parks had met with county staff during the July 17 Santa Cruz County Mobile Home Commission meeting. At that meeting, Supervisor Manu Koenig reported that the RTC has an agreement in place to delay taking any legal action over Castle Mobile Estate’s encroachments for the next few months. The projected construction date for the rail trail has been slated for January 2027, according to RTC Real Property Specialist Bella Kressman.
Millennium Housing, which owns the mobile home parks, said it is willing to go to court, as is the RTC. But property disputes can be tricky in court when an entity has been living on and encroaching upon a location for decades. Encroachments were first identified during a property boundary survey in 2023. Initial notices were sent to residents in January.
Roxanne Stanley, who owns unit #71 at Castle Mobile in Capitola, said she was shocked when she received the notice, stating she needed to either move her home “or we will bulldoze it down and charge you for it.”
Stanley said she is one of four in the park where her actual home is encroaching. To keep it, she would need to move the home to create a 17-foot setback and then chop off half of her bedroom to make the home fit into the now smaller space. RTC would then build a fence right up to her window. The result, she said would be a place that is difficult to live in and even harder to sell.
“They are foolishly ruining people’s lives and property,” Stanley said. “They don’t even have funds for the train, but they going through with the project.”
RTC Ex. Director Sarah Christensen and First District Supervisor Manu Koenig listen to the public at a July 17 meeting about the Rail Trail project.
Stanley said alternative routes are available for the bike path that would circumvent the segment. For instance, Brommer Street and Capitola Road lie parallel to 38th Avenue and are zoned for pedestrians.
Despite all the headaches and potentially losing a significant portion of her lot, she said there’s not even been a mention of any reduction in her rent, which is over $1,000 per month for the space, about double what residents at Blue & Gold are charged. Adding to her ire is the fact that Capitola Beach Villas, which also encroaches on RTC property at segments 10 and 11, are not being forced to make any changes.
“They think these homes … because we’re low income, they can just move us, that we don’t matter. Yet this big, huge Capitola Villa, they have the ability to stay. So they are narrowing that entrance there, but not on 38th. To me, that sounds like discrimination.”
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TOP PHOTO: Roxanne Stanley behind her home at Castle Mobile Estates.