By Rita Robinson
Sarah Copeland is about to pull up her wheels and move.
Copeland owns a mobile home in Laguna Terrace Park and is fed up with recent changes made by the new owners, Hometown America.
Earlier this month, the new landlords removed “Children Playing” signs from the private streets in the mobile home park and began cracking down on long-ignored and unenforced policies prohibiting children from playing in the streets.
To Copeland, a mother of two, that contradicts the very idea of hometown. It was the last insult from the new owners that she intends to take, she said. She’s given notice to the park and said she’s making Dana Point her new residence next month.
“I moved to Laguna Terrace so my kids could play with neighbor kids safely,” said Copeland, a recruiter for Irvine Technology Corporation in Santa Ana. “It’s been a year of harassment.”
Hometown America owns 45 properties for prefabricated-homes nationwide, many designed for adults 55 and older. The Chicago-based company bought Laguna Terrace for a purported $72 million in 2013 from the Esslinger family, who founded the community decades ago.
There are no plans to make Laguna Terrace a 55-plus community, but that might change, said Stephen Braun, Hometown America’s chief operating officer. “People might be moving in who fit that category. I have no control over that,” he said.
According to a mandatory rules agreement signed by residents who move into Laguna Terrace Park, children are not allowed to play in the street. Football and ball-throwing along with skateboarding is prohibited, says a 1997 document, rules that residents say were largely ignored under the previous owners. Riding bicycles is allowed.
“I’m not trying to get them to move out,” said Braun. “I don’t want Sarah to leave.” If his own children wanted to skateboard and play in the streets and community rules prevented it, “I wouldn’t move into the place,” he said.
The 156-space Laguna Terrace Park is considered one of the town’s most affordable neighborhoods.
Safety is the company’s concern, Braun said. If the Esslingers didn’t enforce the rules, the rules exist for a reason, Braun said, and he plans to enforce them.
Street signs were removed as part of an upgrade, he said, and certain signs will be returned after streets are repaved. To Copeland, that means Hometown America is remaking the mobile home community into one “not conducive to families with children and will not be in the future,” she replied in a letter to Mindy Parish, Hometown America’s regional manager in Laguna Beach. Copeland noted that the park lacks a play area and most homes have no yards.
“For 10 years, the rule wasn’t enforced. It wasn’t the culture. It wasn’t reality,” said Copeland, who has lived on a cul-de-sac abutting a hillside in Laguna Terrace for three years and said she has friends who have lived there for more than 10 years. “It’s a quiet neighborhood and there were ‘Children Playing’ street signs everywhere.”
Cultures do change, said Braun. “From time to time, we change the rules in consort with what residents want,” he said. “To enforce rules already there is not an egregious act. We get just as many complaints from residents about children playing in the street and in front of their houses.”
The park could apply the same rules to skateboarding as the city uses, Copeland suggested. A city ordinance restricts skateboarding on specific steep streets and requires safety equipment; it does not ban skateboarding from streets altogether.
City rules, however, are not enforceable on private property, said police Capt. Jason Kravetz, “so we wouldn’t be able to enforce the municipal code in this area.”
Copeland said she received a letter last month from the park’s manager, Angela Conner-Sandoval. It said she was “receiving this letter because your child or children have been identified as playing in the street or skateboarding in the community.”
Residents are also being asked to tidy up the outside of their homes, making planters more uniform and removing drying beach towels and wetsuits, Braun confirmed. Copeland said she received a “laundry list” she has chosen to ignore.
The request was made, said Braun, “to clear up the clutter. Lots of kids’ toys were scattered all over the place,” he said. “In the event of an emergency, you can’t get to the gas shut-off valves.”
Another resident, Derek Stock, said he disagrees with the new anti-clutter demands and rules that ban children from park streets. “Um, this is a beach town and we are walking distance to the beach. Why is this now a problem?” he wrote in an email.
Stock said he grew up in Laguna and now has three children. “We live on a very quiet dead-end street where hardly a car passes. What does it mean that they can’t play? Is this legal? What constitutes play? Can I play in the street but my kids can’t?” he asked.
He described an instance where his 7-year-old son was yelled at by the park’s manager for playing in the street. “I am not sure what Hometown America stands for, but I have never seen a hometown in America where they yell at children to go inside and remove child safety signs. What the hell is wrong with these people?”
Hometown America executives also responded in letters to residents, saying that the rules regarding playing outside in the streets will be enforced while other “antiquated” rules, such as the ban on dog walking, will be revised.
I’m a resident of this park as well, and I’m incredibly disappointed in how all of this is being handled. If residents are going to management and complaining about kids playing in the street, that’s pretty lame. The management here are not babysitters or referees… Note to all my fellow residents; If my kids are doing something intrusive to your peace or privacy, bring it to me. Not to management. That’s what the people of a community do.
But the fact is, the owners of this park are continuously capitulating to a single, vocal contingent of this park. The idea of accommodating the entire community never enters ownership’s minds as indicated by the “Take it or Leave it” nature of their actions. The unannounced act of taking down the “Children Playing” signs “to paint” while leaving all other signs up, including the fire lane signs that are so faded they can’t be read, counters their own weak argument of making this a “safe” community. Frankly, it comes off as some kind of authoritarian message. It’s kind of a joke, to tell you the truth.
Hometown America… come clean with your intentions or recognize genuine realities. Until genuine productive solutions are presented, you are putting the residents of this park and your park managers in a very difficult and contentious position.
John Z
Where are the kids suppose to play, there are not sidewalks, the homes do not have yards? They have a grass area for the dogs to walk but nothing for the children!?! How sad is it that the animals have more freedom then children who are going to grow up and run this country one day.
I’m disappointed that I have to leave this neighborhood. I have the ability to leave immediately, unlike others and as a mother of a very active and social 11 year old boy – I don’t feel that my son should feel like he lives in a prison. I don’t feel that is right that my son feels intimidated by a manager on-site who is hyper focusing her attention on the activities of well behaved elementary school children.
I bought my home prior to Hometown America’s purchase. When I did purchase my home, I sat and signed a land lease with management discussing how beautiful and safe this is neighborhood was for the children. They have the pool, we have birthday parties in the clubhouse. The neighbors talk to each other and the children play outside! This has been all part of the “sell” in securing new residents. (Steven Braun, that is EXACTLY why I came to Laguna Terrance Park and why the “park rules and regulations” from 1994/1997 did not seem concerning to me as I moved in my children. It also says residents can only have 1 dog. The same rules also say that you cannot walk your dog on the Park streets.)
Stephen Braun indicates that the signs have been taken down as an upgrade. While certain signs will be returned when repaved. Our on-site manager indicated to a fellow resident (before this article came out) that the signs were old and taken down to be redone.
In fact, the signs were ALL TAKEN DOWN on November 6th, 2104, the morning after my letter to corporate on Nov 5th 2014 asking corporate if they supported “prohibiting children play” outside on our dead end streets.
In fact, the FACE PLATES of the signs were all taken down off the metal signage structures. The sign structures are still in the ground.
I don’t need to summarize my perception of these facts. I did receive a clear message from Hometown American and so did every family with children and grandchildren at Laguna Terrace Park.
Sarah Copeland
I’m disappointed that I have to leave this neighborhood. I have the ability to leave immediately, unlike others and as a mother of a very active and social 11 year old boy – I don’t feel that my son should feel like he lives in a prison. I don’t feel that is right that my son feels intimidated by a manager on-site who is hyper focusing her attention on the activities of well behaved elementary school children.
I bought my home prior to Hometown America’s purchase. When I did purchase my home, I sat and signed a land lease with management discussing how beautiful and safe this is neighborhood was for the children. They have the pool, we have birthday parties in the clubhouse. The neighbors talk to each other and the children play outside! This has been all part of the “sell” in securing new residents. (Steven Braun, that is EXACTLY why I came to Laguna Terrance Park and why the “park rules and regulations” from 1994/1997 did not seem concerning to me as I moved in my children. It also says residents can only have 1 dog. The same rules also say that you cannot walk your dog on the Park streets.)
Stephen Braun indicates that the signs have been taken down as an upgrade. While certain signs will be returned when repaved. Our on-site manager indicated to a fellow resident (before this article came out) that the signs were old and taken down to be redone.
In fact, the signs were ALL TAKEN DOWN on November 6th, 2104, one day after my letter to corporate on Nov 5th 2014 asking corporate if they supported “prohibiting children play” outside on our dead end streets.
In fact, the FACE PLATES of the signs were all taken down off the metal signage structures. The sign structures are still in the ground.
I don’t need to summarize my perception of these facts. I did receive a clear message and so did every family with children and grandchildren at Laguna Terrace Park.
Sarah Copeland
How terrible. Why can’t the kids play outside? Just because people complain? Isn’t that the way the world has been forever? There’s always a bunch of grumpy old people that hates kids and complains about them. Why is the response that kids cant play? Maybe the parents should put their kids on dog leashes and walk them around the neighborhood. At least they can go outside without the management yelling at them. Hometown America please stop being assholes.
This is ridiculous. I have been to this neighborhood and found it lovely and family friendly. People do not have big or any yards for kids to play in so they take it to the large,little driven cull de sacss and street. I’ve walked down to the beach with my niece and nephews. It’s how a family neighborhood is! If you dont want kids in the streets dont let in families. To start enforcing rules ignored for 10 years is really unfair to the current residents.
by the way, I live in a little neighborhood on a cul-de-sac in Florida and kids play in the street all the time. Its not a big deal.
Tut -Tut Stephen Braun. Some things never change like lack of character & integrity.
Amazing, how some adults lack any consideration for their neighbors and impose their children on others, even when there are rules in place.
Very simple solution, take your kids to the park, the beach, or move to a place that has a playground. “Children Playing” signs are for those who want others to be babysitters.
* So glad to hear that the rules will be enforced.