A. Intent and Purpose. The Senior Mobile Home Park Overlay District is intended to preserve a variety and balance of housing types within the City of Petaluma, and to provide assurances that existing senior mobile home parks within the Senior Mobile Home Park Overlay District and future senior mobile home parks established subject to the Overlay District will remain available to seniors.

C. Designation. The Senior Mobile Home Park Overlay District shall be designated by the symbol (MH-S) on the City of Petaluma Zoning Map. The (MH-S) designation applies to the five senior mobile home parks that exist in the City as of the effective date of this section, and to senior mobile home parks established in the City after the effective date of this section subject to the Overlay District. The five senior mobile home parks in the City as of the effective date of this section are:

D. Senior Occupancy Requirement. At least 80 percent of the spaces in senior mobile home parks must be occupied by at least one person 55 years of age or older. This senior occupancy requirement does not apply to or affect ownership of a mobile home unit. As long as at least one resident of a mobile home in a senior mobile home park is 55 years of age or older, the senior occupancy requirement is satisfied as to that mobile home, whether or not the owner of the mobile home is 55 years of age or older.

E. Limitations on Rentals. Spaces and mobile homes in a senior mobile home park overlay district shall be rented only to occupants who meet the senior occupancy requirements set forth in subsection (A) of this section; provided, however, that the occupants of a space or mobile home who do not meet the senior occupancy requirement in subsection (A) of this section have rented a space and/or mobile home in a senior mobile home park before the effective date of this section and continue to occupy that space and/or mobile home following the effective date of this section, they shall be allowed to remain in that senior mobile home park; and provided further, that when such occupant(s) cease to occupy that space and/or mobile home, the mobile home and space shall be rented to occupants who meet the senior occupancy requirement in subsection (A) of this section.

F. Minimum Design and Performance Standards. The signage, advertising, leases, rental agreements, and park rules and regulations for spaces in a mobile home park in the Senior Mobile Home Park Overlay Zone (MH-S) shall state that the park is a senior mobile home park.

G. Annual Certification. Each senior mobile home park shall have procedures for verifying that it qualifies as a senior facility under applicable federal and/or state law and this section, including documentation establishing that at least 80 percent of the mobile homes or spaces in the mobile home park are occupied by at least one resident who is 55 years of age or older in accordance with subsection (D) of this section. These procedures shall provide for regular updates, through surveys, affidavits, or other means of updating the initial information supplied by the occupants of the mobile home park. Such updates must take place at least once every two years. A summary of this occupancy verification documentation shall be available for inspection upon reasonable notice and request by City officials.

The operator of each mobile home park in the Senior Mobile Home Park Overlay Zone shall, on an annual basis, provide to the City’s Housing Director a certification that the subject mobile home park is in compliance with the senior occupancy requirement of this section, in substantially the following form:

I [name] hereby certify, under penalty of perjury in accordance with California law that there is at least one occupant 55 years of age or older in [number of units] units of the total [number of units in the park] units in the [name of the seniors mobile home park] senior mobile home park. This certification is based on my personal knowledge of the residents, evidence provided to me in the form of official government documents containing specific information about the current age of the residents, resident affidavits, or age certifications made by residents in their current lease agreements.

The City’s Housing Director shall establish the deadline for filing the annual certification, which, to the extent possible, shall be coordinated with the timing of filings as may be required pursuant to the City’s mobile home rent stabilization program.

H. Violations. Failure to comply with the requirements of this section shall constitute a violation of the ordinance codified in this section, and be subject to enforcement and the remedies provided in Chapters 1.10 through 1.16 of the Petaluma Municipal Code. (Ord. 2865 § 3, 2023.)