CHICO — A half-hour before the Internal Affairs Committee convened in the Chico City Council Chambers for its monthly Monday afternoon meeting, a dozen seniors gathered at the front door awaiting admission. By 1 p.m., attendance swelled to four dozen, prompting a venue shift from the conference room to the larger room where the council meets.
That was the first contrast with a typical IAC session, where city officials typically outnumber citizens. So was the request to turn up the volume: “We’re all old people here,” an audience member noted, drawing laughs.
So, too, was the emotional response when two of the three councilors decided to take no action to address rent increases. The third, Addison Winslow, came away just as miffed as residents, saying afterward: “There should be a law against tantalizing seniors with security in their homes.”
Mobile home parks got on the city’s radar after the owner of senior park in north Chico raised rents 30%, following back-to-back increases of 10%. Though the owner reduced the increase, residents asked the council to consider a rent stabilization ordinance — and Jan. 16, the council referred the issue to Internal Affairs.
Winslow, whose grandmother lives in a Chico mobile home park, started discussing an ordinance at the outset; Chair Tom van Overbeek suggested hearing from constituents and deciding how to address the problem.
Eleven Chicoans spoke. One suggested extending the “compassion” for unhoused people to fixed-income seniors; another said, “You don’t want to make a bunch of seniors homeless,” which a later speaker echoed. Dave Donnan, a realtor and park resident, distinguished space renters from tenants for other housing — and rent stabilization from rent control.
“Seniors are really hurting,” Ed Tietz said, noting Social Security payments of $1,200 leave little margin. He hopes for a sweet spot in which the park owners can make money without squeezing residents.
Gene Dampshen, owner of Casa de Flores Mobile Home Community, said his family business considers the needs of its seniors, “but certainly we don’t want another rule” on operating the park.
Referring to a comment about a local ordinance versus a measure under consideration in the Legislature, Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds remarked she would like to know more information considering potential liability from setting rates of return.
“There’s room to do something, but I don’t know we’re there yet,” she said.
Van Overbeek noted language in stabilization ordinances permitting park owners to recoup costs and added, “If we’d have had a rent control ordinance in place, that wouldn’t have helped” in the case of properties acquired by new ownership.
Winslow made a motion for the committee to recommend the City Council consider a rent stabilization ordinance. Neither Reynolds nor van Overbeek seconded, and when the motion died, van Overbeek tried to move on to the second item.
“It’s not right!” audience members yelled — prompting van Overbeek to gavel a recess. As the audience headed out, further cries echoed, one with an expletive.
After adjournment, van Overbeek called rent stabilization for seniors “the hardest thing I ever had to decide” in two-plus years in office. He said he empathized with the residents while also weighing the impact of inflation on park owners, too.
“This is the first time I’ve felt bad after one of these meetings,” he continued. “But if we try to solve a short-term problem with a short-term solution, we’ll end up with a long-term structural problem.”
Cannabis licenses
After the brief recess, IAC members heard a proposal from the city manager’s office to broaden the scope of state licenses the city requires for cannabis manufacturers — and also require these businesses to begin operating within three years of receiving their city license.
Management Analyst Hope Ithurburn said a local business requested two additions: Type N, for makers of cannabis-infused products, and Type P, for packaging and labeling only. City Manager Mark Sorensen said the city intends “to clean up the code” to include these categories.
“It almost means we have to do this,” Reynolds said — and Sorensen concurred, calling the omissions “an oversight.”
Ithurburn further noted that the city does not have a time limit for a business to start up; the staff proposal, a three-year window, is consistent with other permits, Community Development Director Brendan Vieg explained.
Of the five manufacturing licensees, Ithurburn said, two have opened and a third plans to open “in the next few months.” All three retailers are open.
The one speaker, Charles Burton of Chico’s Best, said his distribution service’s “customer base isn’t there” as opposed to other cities. “We would love to move our business to Chico, but we can’t…. Opening up these licenses would bring businesses here.”
Reynolds quickly moved to adopt the recommendations, van Overbeek beat Winslow to the second, and it passed unanimously.
With no further speakers, the meeting adjourned after 53 minutes.
