Few jurisdictions in California have as tight of a rent control grip on local mobilehome communities as Mountain View does. The city, which already had a strong rent control ordinance, just recently made changes that make it very difficult to profitably operate a community, while also properly maintaining basic infrastructure. 

Previously, owners of mobilehome communities in Mountain View were subject to an ordinance that capped rent increases at 100% of CPI or 5%, with full vacancy decontrol. 

While the ordinance included a 2% floor, based on the CPI of the past 10 years, this floor was only triggered a few times — about as often as the 5% cap had been. On top of that, owners in Mountain View were also subject to what is probably the highest rent control fees in the state; with reports of fees as high as $250 – $300 per space. Despite all of this, toward the end of 2024, city council members began discussions on revisiting the ordinance in order to strengthen it. 

The city organized meetings with residents and community owners, where we made the case that squeezing the rent control grip in Mountain View would push providers into a very difficult situation and increase the number of fair-rate-of-return challenges the city and residents would have to contend with. 

This is a common scenario: residents and activists look at what neighboring jurisdictions have recently done (in this case, cities in Sonoma) and demand that their city does it as well — without consideration the impact of those policies in those cities, or whether that policy would be the right fit for them. 

Residents and activists asked for a drastic change to the ordinance: 50% of CPI, with no floor, and a 3% cap. On the other hand, owners were simply asking for either no change or a change that would have the least amount of impact on the status quo. We also used the opportunity to argue for lower rent control fees, in order to more closely match other jurisdictions in California. 

City staff made a recommendation to lower rent control fees while amending the ordinance to 75% of CPI with a 1% floor and 5% ceiling. While we successfully convinced the council that their rent control fees were outrageous and should be lowered, the council sided with resident activists on everything else. The council, on a 4-3 vote, agreed to completely remove the 2% floor, lower the cap to 3%, and lower the CPI to 60%. 

This amendment made the Mountain View ordinance one of the most draconian ordinances in the state, and put tremendous pressure on owners and managers in the city. Unfortunately the council members in Mountain View, like other jurisdictions, are committed to finding how far they can push their ordinance before the whole thing breaks. At WMA we are committed to fighting for private property rights every step of the way.

Saulo Londoño is WMA’s Regional Representative for the Northern California/Bay areas. He can be reached at saulo@wma.org.