RTC’s rail trail deadline arrives, but mobile home parks haven’t moved, likely spurring at least one lawsuit

In the regional transportation commission’s ongoing pursuit of a rail and trail system, one of the starkest dividing lines can be found between two Mid-County mobile parks. 

Literally: From above, the east-to-west tracks of the old Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line look like a series of vertebrae bisecting the properties of the Blue & Gold Star Mobile Home Park and the Castle Mobile Estates park. But also politically: Between the two parks, parts of homes or fence lines on 44 lots encroach into the rail line property, which is owned by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. In order for the RTC to build its long-envisioned Coastal Rail Trail project, officials told the owners of the two parks and its residents in January 2024 that they needed to move their structures off the agency’s property by June 30, 2025, or the RTC would do it for them. 

Now, that deadline has arrived, and the properties have not budged. 

“My clients are not intending to remove anything,” Ed Chun, attorney for Millennium Housing, the Costa Mesa-based nonprofit that owns Castle Mobile Estates, told Lookout on Wednesday. Chun said if the RTC wants to enforce the deadline, “they will either file a lawsuit, or they will try and physically remove these encroachments … I don’t think they would do that.”

At Castle Mobile Estates, 24 units have structures that breach the RTC’s property line. The solutions, according to a report published last fall, range in degree from adjusting a fence line for less than $2,000, to relocating a full unit for $40,000, to tearing down another and rebuilding a smaller one for more than $224,000. Chun said for the many low- and very-low-income residents of the park, the costs of complying with the RTC’s demands are infeasible. 

Sarah Christensen, the RTC’s executive director, said her agency was actively involved in conversations about a solution with Millennium Housing and the City of Capitola, where Castle Mobile Estates is located. She wants the RTC, the city and the park owner to fund a program that could help subsidize the removal of the personal property so residents do not bear the full cost. 

Christensen said “the last thing we want is to disrupt these people’s lives.” However, residents have already reported a deep sense of disruption since receiving the RTC’s letter about the encroachments last year. Although she said the RTC would not be physically moving any property on July 1, Christensen defended the deadline and the strong language of those initial letters as a means “to get things moving and get people serious about what needs to happen.” 

“There is encroachment and there is no way around it,” Christensen said. “But we want to work with park residents and the owners. We’re not in the business of trying to force anything. We want to make it as smooth as possible.” 

Capitola City Councilmember Gerry Jensen, who on June 12 was appointed to the RTC’s voting panel, said the city is pursuing other solutions beyond a subsidy. He said he supports slowing down and addressing the encroachments piecemeal, preferably as the units naturally turn over. 

Jensen said he was “very concerned” about the possible disruptions to Castle Mobile Estates residents’ lives, and said he was confused about the RTC’s urgency since the path toward building the passenger rail aspect of the project remains undetermined and, at best, many years away. 

“This is for a train that isn’t funded at this time and there is no clear direction for it to move forward,” Jensen told Lookout. “There has been a breakdown of communication.” 

However distant and uncertain passenger rail might be, the RTC is focused on moving forward with the hike and bike trail, which will run parallel to the tracks. Christensen said in order to receive a state grant for the trail, the RTC committed to breaking ground on the trail for this Mid-County leg of the project in 2026, which prompted the agency’s urgency behind the mobile home park encroachments. Christensen said when the RTC set the June 30 deadline, it represented an estimate that, at worst, curing the property issues would require a year’s worth of litigation.

The Blue & Gold Star Mobile Home Park appears to be headed toward that worst-case scenario. Exactly 20 of the lots in that park breach RTC property, and the fixes similarly range from a fence adjustment, to a unit relocation, to spending more than $175,000 to replace one unit with a smaller dwelling. However, Christensen said the RTC has not heard anything from the park owners since it sent the letter out last year. 

So, in order to force a solution, Christensen said the agency is moving to involve the courts. 

“Unfortunately, we’re going to need to file a suit against them,” Christensen said. “Our preference would be to have civil coordination with the parties, but this gives us no choice.” 

Lookout was unable to reach the owner of the Blue & Gold Star Mobile Home Park by deadline. A property manager replied to calls by text, asking whether Castle Mobile Estates had spoken to us. Lookout left additional, and unreturned, voicemails with phone numbers associated with the owner, whose mailing address is in Concord.

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