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Rancho water finally flows

Rancho de Sonoma, the sometimes divided mobile-home park harboring a fluctuating population of close to 100 residents, was due to receive city water through a new intertie slated to be opened at about 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon.

Opening of the hook-up will put an end to anxieties over arsenic pollution dogging residents since June 2008 when the California Department of Health issued a notice to park owner Preston Cook that arsenic levels in the park’s well water exceeded federal limits of .010 micrograms per liter.

Cook’s well water, which served all water demands in the park, had an annual average level of .016.

Approval of the hook-up between Cook and city officials was part of an agreement that Cook would dismiss a $25 million lawsuit against the city in exchange for a water service consolidation agreement. Cook sued the city in 2008 alleging a temporary moratorium on conversion of mobile-home parks to owner-occupied subdivisions violated his property rights. The moratorium was imposed by the city while it developed an ordinance governing such conversions. The moratorium was lifted after the ordinance was adopted.

Ironically, Cook said on Thursday that plans for the park conversion are now on hold.

Water to park residents was shut off at 8 a.m. Monday morning as a crew of workers from D&D Pipeline Inc. completed the final connections, allowing Cook’s well water to continue being used for landscaping and the park’s swimming pool, while the residential water and four new fire hydrants are connected to the city pipeline.

A massive valve complex at the entrance to the park on Ramon Street reveals the eight-inch pipe carrying water to the fire hydrants, and the four-inch water pipe for residential consumption.

The water hook-up is being paid for with a $1,148,432 grant provided by the state under the Proposition 84 Safe Drinking Water program. Cook had been given until the end of 2011 to eliminate the arsenic problem and work on the connection to city water began in December.

The water service consolidation agreement signed last year requires that the quality of the water flowing through the mobile-home park’s distribution system be tested before the city signs off on the project. If water quality does not meet state standards, the California Department of Health will be notified and will then require Cook to mitigate the problem.

The park’s water supply represents one of the lingering issues in a bitter dispute between some of Rancho de Sonoma’s residents who favored Cook’s plans to create an owner-occupied subdivision, and other residents who opposed it.

At issue was protection of affordable rents for the many retired seniors living in the park on fixed incomes. Rent levels are controlled by city ordinance and average about $400 a month, with an annual increase limited to 75 percent of the increase in the Consumer Price Index. As part of a promise Cook made when he began promoting the conversion plan, all current residents were guaranteed voluntary rent control for themselves and for one generation of over-55 resident heirs.

But disgruntled residents remain, some accusing Cook of refusing to allow residents to sell their mobile homes to buyers of their choosing.

Longtime critic Mike Warner claimed Cook “is trying to break rent control,” by refusing to let residents sell their homes to outside people, and then buying up vacant homes himself at budget prices.

Cook scoffs at the charge. “That’s totally untrue. Anyone can sell their house, that’s just another lie on their part.”

Cook acknowledged that, “I do have the right to reject a purchaser on economic grounds … if they don’t have the means to maintain the space … but it’s a very limited right.”

He confirmed that he has “bought a lot of units in here, and I intend to continue to do so, so I can upgrade the park.” But he also acknowledged that when he buys a unit he can then rent it out at market rates that he described as “$800 to $1,200 a month.”

In response to one rumored fear, Cook said he has no intention to close the park, although he could do so, he said, if he wanted to.

“If you have a 20 percent vacancy factor you have the right to close the park, under state law. I already own over 20 percent, but (closing) is not my intention.”

Cook added a minor revelation that the long-contested plan to convert the park to an owner-occupied subdivision, “is probably not going to happen for a while. Everything is going to stay the same. No one’s had to buy their space, no one’s had to sell. It’s as if there were no conversion.”

Cook said real estate values have fallen too far to make it economic to sell individual lots, which at the height of the conversion controversy were rumored to be valued at $100,000 apiece or higher.

For now, said Cook on Thursday, “This is great. We’ve got a safe water system, we’ve got a safe fire system. It’s a very good thing.”