October 04, 2005

CWP To BORever Mob...Let's Get It On!

Mobile home owners sue over order to leave

By M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Story appeared in Metro section, Page B4

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The owners of a mobile home at Lake Berryessa, facing a Dec. 15 deadline to move the home, have filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which is considering a sweeping plan that could dramatically change access to the 48-year-old man-made lake.

The lawsuit, filed by Oscar and Andrea Braun, claims the bureau has no legal basis to order the couple to move their mobile home out of Pleasure Cove Resort, where 60 other mobile home owners face the same fate.

Filed Sept. 19 in U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Francisco, the suit asks the court to cancel the deadline while it considers the case.

When the lake opened in 1957, Napa County, which first managed the lake, allowed several resorts to rent trailer sites. Over time, the sites evolved from short-term and grew more elaborate with permanent mobile homes, and the bureau inherited management of the lake.

Now, at least 1,300 mobile homes in seven resorts dot the shoreline. Because contracts between the bureau and the resort owners expire in three and four years, the bureau has been developing new plans for the lake. One of the options call for eliminating the mobile homes and introducing more short-term uses, such as campgrounds, restaurants and picnic grounds in an effort to broaden the lake's appeal and attract more visitors.

A decision on what the new plan will entail is expected by the beginning of November, said Pete Lucero, a bureau manager at the lake. He declined to comment further on the lawsuit.

Earlier this year, the bureau had closed Pleasure Cove Resort, where about 60 mobile homes remain, after the owner died and a new one failed to post a performance bond. An Arizona-based company recently contracted with the bureau as an interim manager of Pleasure Cove, which also includes boat docks.

In March, the mobile home owners at Pleasure Cove were notified that any new owner would have to terminate contracts with them by November.

Napa County had originally issued permits for the mobile home sites and the owners were told that nothing would change until 2008 or 2009, said Frank Iwama, the Brauns' attorney.

The Brauns, who live in Half Moon Bay, bought the mobile home at Pleasure Cove in 2000 and were told then about the possibility of changes in eight years, he said.

"He put (in) $200,000 worth of work on his place," Iwama said.