Residents of a mobile home park in Oceanside, California, say a locked gate has tripled the length of their trips to school, delayed an oxygen delivery, and left fewer ways out as wildfire risk increases.
People who live in the 350-home Cavalier Mobile Estates also view the gate as a constant marker of the divide between their community and the larger neighboring homes in South Oceanside.
Here's what to know
Residents on each side described very different effects after South Oceanside homeowners raised money to install a gate between their streets and the mobile home park, inewsource reported. Nearby homeowners pointed to traffic and parking concerns, while people in the park said the barrier has created serious problems.
With the gate locked, aside from longer trips to school and delays in critical deliveries, residents have only one other way out — a path that sends them onto Oceanside Boulevard and over a train crossing.
"I really honestly feel like it was more of a classist situation than it was even the parking, even the cars," Renata Engel of Cavalier Mobile Estates, who has spent years bringing her concerns to City Council meetings, told inewsource.
More background
Before the barrier went up, Cavalier Mobile Estates had its own gate to keep nonresidents from using the park as a shortcut. Staff members had keys and could open it for residents.
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Park management took that gate out in 2018 and used speed bumps as a traffic-control measure instead. Barbara Villasenor, who lives in South Oceanside, said the change was followed by speeding, delivery trucks, and parking by mobile home park residents on neighborhood streets.
South Oceanside neighbors responded by raising thousands of dollars to install a locked gate between the two communities. Residents inside the mobile home park say that decision has imposed significant costs on them.
Bob Lannen, the park's homeowners association president, has heard complaints from neighbors for years and worries about the future.
"There's going to be a situation where somebody needs to get out of this park quickly, and they're not going to be able to go that way," he told inewsource. "It's ridiculous that the people that live here have to be that inconvenienced and have to go all the way around all the time because of that."
What can be done?
Efforts to change the situation are being led by park residents, including Engel, who continues to raise the matter with city officials and homeowners nearby.
"They just did not want people from Cavalier coming up here and spending time in their neighborhood," she told inewsource.
Councilmember Jimmy Figueroa, whose district includes the park, visited while campaigning and again last year to hear residents' concerns.
"I personally would like to see that gate open," he told inewsource.
Figueroa also said he talked to the city attorney and fire chief and was told the gate was not in the city's control.
South Oceanside resident Barbara Villasenor has offered to give the mobile home park's HOA or management a key, but neither party wants to assume liability.
Lannen said he would accept a key only if he could make copies for all residents. Villasenor told inewsource she feared that the keys "would be abused" and wouldn't solve her neighborhood's concerns.
Where can I learn more?
Similar disputes over gates, streets, and neighborhood access have played out in other communities.
• In California, homeowners who blocked park access for decades may fund a $2.5 million overhaul.
• A neighbor's dangerous roadblock on the street left emergency vehicles unable to get through.
• An HOA garage gate slammed onto a renter's car, leaving friends with a $4,000 bill.
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