Quick Take
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission has completed a first draft of an analysis of mobile homes encroaching on the right of way for a new rail trail project along a section of the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line in Live Oak. Residents have been told that their homes need to be shifted or relocated by June 2025. Officials with the commission said they’re not sure who will be responsible for paying, but it won’t be the RTC.
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission offered an initial set of options Thursday for mobile home residents whose dwellings or yards encroach on the right of way for a new rail trail project, and said it wouldn’t be picking up their relocation costs.
In presenting its first draft of an analysis of mobile home encroachments along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line in Live Oak to the county Mobile and Manufactured Home Commission, the RTC said there are still no answers regarding who will pay for the required work.
A number of mobile homes in the Castle Mobile Home Estates and Blue and Gold Star Mobile Home Park in Live Oak are encroaching on a stretch of rail that requires substantial construction in order to fit a pedestrian and bicycle trail next to the railroad tracks, in line with the “ultimate” trail design of the Coastal Rail Trail project that the RTC and county government have committed to building. That design allows for the possibility of passenger rail in the future.
The RTC sent notices to residents in January giving them until June 2025 to “remove the unauthorized encroachments,” or the RTC will do so and charge the encroaching party for the cost. The notion has dismayed residents, who have considered legal action if they are forced to move their homes or relocate.
RTC Senior Transportation Planner Grace Blakeslee told the nearly 20 people in attendance Thursday that Idaho-based engineering firm HMH Engineering is analyzing how much each encroaching structure was extending into the rail line right of way, and possible options that can be used to solve the problem.
Blakeslee said the nature of encroachment for each mobile home varies, with some having only a fence encroaching onto the rail line and others with part of a dwelling itself jutting out into the right of way. The latter would require disconnecting and reconnecting utilities to relocate the home away from the rail line.
For those homes that extend well into the rail line, Blakeslee said that they could be shifted away from the rail line to allow for 3 feet of space between the property and the right of way, but that a 20-foot wide street is required in front of the dwellings, too. If that cannot be maintained, then the homes might either need to be replaced with a smaller dwelling or relocated entirely.
Blakeslee added that the California Department of Housing and Community Development could potentially allow just a 2.5-foot setback, rather than 3 feet, which could make a potential shift easier for some of the encroaching properties.
However, there are still no answers when it comes to which entity would pay for the work required to relocate or shift the homes. Blakeslee said that it is “a difficult question,” but that the RTC’s stance is that it is not responsible for paying for the encroachment mitigation, as the agency has “hundreds of encroachments along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line.”
Blakeslee said the RTC is going to perform a more detailed analysis inside each park.
“We have done an analysis from the desktop point of view, but we haven’t gone into the park and [done] the engineering,” she said. “Part of that is that we have exhibits that show the placement of the mobile homes within the plot, and we’d like to take a look and ensure those are accurate so we can say our assumptions are accurate.”
The RTC was originally planning to take up the issue at its October meeting, but Blakeslee said Thursday that it’s unlikely the agency will complete the necessary next steps in time, and is now “aiming for November.”
Latest news
Check out our Carmageddon road delay list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
- Starting on Sunday, Sept. 29, the on-ramp to southbound Highway 1 from Bay Avenue in Capitola will be closed for two months to allow construction crews to adjust the roadway elevation in line with the bus-on-shoulder lane. Drivers can take a detour north on Porter Street to Soquel Drive, then east to Park Avenue, where they can rejoin Highway 1. They may also head south on Bay Avenue to Park Avenue, and rejoin southbound Highway 1 there. The RTC expects the ramp to reopen on Nov. 29.
- Southbound Highway 1 will be fully closed overnight from Monday through Thursday between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. to allow crews to continue working on north- and southbound auxiliary lanes and bus-on-shoulder improvements. A detour is available between Park Avenue and State Park Drive in Aptos.
- Shoulder work will shut down alternating lanes at various sections of Highway 9 between 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. Those sections are between upper Glen Arbor Road and Route 9, Main Street and Route 9, Fillmore Avenue and Route 9, and Hillside Avenue/Miles Street and Mill Street.
- Through the end of 2024, various sections of Soquel Drive between State Park Drive and Paul Sweet Road could be reduced to one lane of traffic as the Soquel Drive Buffered Bike Lane and Congestion Mitigation Project moves forward. It includes new bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, adaptive traffic signals and updated sidewalks and curbs. The sections of road will be intermittently closed as work continues at multiple sites. Specifically, look out for intermittent single-lane closures between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.