IN 1988, the tenants of a mobile home community in Novato formed a nonprofit corporation for the specific purpose of purchasing the park and facilitating its conversion into a resident-owned park. Thirty-seven years later, a new generation of residents are still trying to buy it.
Nestled between two green hills, just east of the Loma Verde Preserve in Novato, a cluster of white mobile homes at the Marin Valley Mobile Country Club face the rising sun over San Pablo Bay. The 400 aging renters who live there said they love looking down across a field of safflower at the water and watching the marsh hawks and deer. They are willing to pay $23.5 million to buy the park. The city wants $26 million.
“Right now, I would rather be here than in Paris, which is surprising for me to say because I love that city so much,” said resident Ray Cobane. “I love the people here, and I love our little house with the view, and I love the animals that are here.”
The city in a statement last week said that negotiations with the Park Acquisition Corp. representing the residents are ongoing.
“In 1997, the city of Novato borrowed $17 million to purchase the MVMCC, preserving affordable housing for more than 400 seniors living in the park’s 313 mobile home units,” the city’s statement said. “The PAC has previously sought to purchase the park but was unable to proceed due to challenges in demonstrating long-term financial stability.”
“That is not true at all,” said PAC member Mary Currie at the park’s clubhouse Wednesday. “We’ve had a balanced budget every year since our beginning. Every single year we’ve been balanced. And there’s absolutely not one dime of city general funds that comes into our operations.”
Currie was joined by a circle of fellow residents and PAC members, aged 55 and older, healthy, well-dressed and clear-eyed. They told stories of crowding into City Council meetings with wheelchairs and walkers, holding placards and speaking in defense of their reputation after a 2023 Marin County Civil Grand Jury report described them as operating in the red.
“We went to the city and testified, ‘Why did you give that information to the grand jury?’” said Currie.
She said they figured out that the city gave the jury projected budgets that show a potential for future deficit rather than relying on actual income.
That Civil Grand Jury report, “Novato’s Chronic Fiscal Deficit: A Call to Action,” said that both the grand jury’s investigation and a city staff report concluded that unless action is taken by the City Council, essential expenditures will continue to exceed revenues at the mobile home park and “reserve funds designated for MVMCC will be exhausted within five years, leaving the city’s taxpayers to cover the deficit.”
One of the grand jury’s recommendations to the city was to sell some of its properties to relieve debt. Soon after the report was published, a local developer named Dean Moser offered to buy the mobile home park.
“It was five days after the report,” said Currie. “He’s at the City Council with a fully formed $30 million offer.”
Moser owns HCA Property Management, a company headquartered in Novato.
In its statement last week, the city alluded to the developer’s $30 million offer.
“The city had declined an unsolicited offer by a private entity who wished to purchase the site, choosing to retain ownership to ensure stable housing for residents,” the city said in a press release last week.
But that scare of displacement in 2023 galvanized the park residents to try again to buy the park themselves. They studied comparable cases around the country and hired a lawyer. By 2024, they had formed a new nonprofit called the Marin Valley Cooperative, which would allow them to assume ownership and establish a governing structure. So far, the two parties have exchanged two rounds of offers as part of a good faith exclusive negotiating agreement.
New offers, same standoff
On June 19, the PAC offered the city $20 million. The city declined and set the asking price of $26 million, which it said was the fair market value appraisal of the property. The PAC’s appraisal found the value of MVMCC to be $21.3 million after deducting $1 million for deferred maintenance and capital improvements.
On Aug. 11, the PAC upped its offer to $23.5 million, adding that it will finance the purchase with a loan from Resident Owned Communities USA, a nonprofit that helps mobile park communities across the country finance and manage their own homes, and a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The purchase price would be paid to the city in cash at close of escrow and would not rely upon the city financing the acquisition, the letter said.
Currie said the PAC is assembling documentation to prove the residents can pay for the park.
In their Sept. 17 reply, the city declined the second PAC offer and restated the $26 million asking price.
In the press release, the city said the negotiating period ends Dec. 31.
“They forgot to mention in their press release that there’s a possibility for six-month extension,” said Currie. “We will be asking for that fairly soon because we’ll probably need it.”
About 40% of the units are for tenants with low incomes, classified as 80% of Marin County’s median single-person household income of $130,000, but many more fall into or below that category. Currie shared a survey of resident economic status recently conducted by the California Center for Cooperative Development, a nonprofit that promotes housing cooperatives.
About 85% of the park residents participated in the survey, and 87% of those surveyed classify as low-income or below that.
One of the things that drew me here is that this is a real community. It isn’t just a cluster of trails. We have a ‘we-ness’ here.
Helen MacLam, 11-year resident
The average rent at the park is $640 before utilities, and the park association organizes some cooperative perks. On most days, free food is available from the clubhouse, donated from area grocery stores and markets. They share clothing and household goods, and they check in on each other as they age in place.
“One of the things that drew me here is that this is a real community,” said 11-year resident Helen MacLam. “It isn’t just a cluster of trails. We have a ‘we-ness’ here. The folks develop ways of maintaining and stimulating this sense of community, and that to me is the outstanding quality.”
Retired firefighter John Hansen has lived in the park for 15 years and said the support from the community is important because his monthly income is $200 less than his expenses.
“This is my home,” he said. “This is my community. This is my family. I’m in good company here.”
Julie Manson moved in 23 years ago wanting nothing but a roof and some peace and quiet.
“Because I manage my money the way I did, this is what I could afford,” she said. “My question to the City Council is, would you like your neighborhood to be owned by politicians?”