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DOWDALL LAW OFFICES <br />A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION <br />ATTO R N EYS AT LAW <br />City Council of the City of Santa Ana <br />City of Santa Ana <br />September 16, 2021 <br />Page 53 <br />confiscatory, but the evidence presented to the trial court demonstrated that <br />neither the "buy out" option nor the "relocation" option is even <br />economically feasible. Therefore, as a practical matter, the challenged statute <br />authorizes a permanent physical occupation of the park owner's property and <br />effectively extinguishes a fundamental attribute of ownership, the right to <br />physically occupy one's land." <br />The Court again relied on the failure of the regulation to advance a governmentally <br />legitimate interest <br />"Unlike section 723.033, the regulatory scheme contained in section 723.061(2) <br />does not substantially advance a legitimate state interest, but instead singles out <br />mobile home park owners to bear an unfair burden, and therefore constitutes an <br />unconstitutional regulatory taking of their property. See Aeins v. City of <br />Tiburon 447 U.S. 255, 100 S.Ct. 2138, 65 L.Ed.2d 106 (1980), and cases cited <br />therein." <br />In Guimont v. Clarke (1993) 121 Wash.2d 586 [854 P.2d 1], cert. denied 114 S.Ct. 1216, <br />127 L.Ed.2d 563 (1994), the same issue was presented. Again, the requirement of value or <br />equity buy-outs was rejected. <br />"The amount of money a park owner must pay under the Act is substantial. In <br />fact, under a worst case scenario, the size of the park owner's obligation is <br />assistance even to those tenants who are not financially burdened ... [T]he <br />imposition of costs on closing a business cannot be avoided in this manner. We <br />conclude the Act is unduly oppressive and violates substantive due process." <br />Obviously, requiring the park owner to fund mobilehome buyouts is unconstitutional <br />whenever challenged. <br />The future right of occupation of a mobilehome space, after the departure of a tenant who <br />voluntarily terminates his tenancy by sale or vacation from the property, is a property right <br />which belongs to the park owner. If a tenant voluntarily terminates tenancy, he has no further <br />right to live in the park. He may sell the used mobilehome but certainly has no right to sell the <br />rent -controlled tenancy at current fair market value. Such a practice is no better than "scalping" <br />park entry fees. If park owners did it, a violation of state law would occur. The departing tenant <br />offers no service at all for the added cost of the mobilehome located in the park --the purchaser is <br />simply victimized with a "premium" for entry onto that pad. <br />The regulatory taking can occur by the mere passage of the ordinance. There is no need <br />to exhaust remedies or to await the development of an administrative record. In Richardson v. <br />-53- <br />