Residents Of Marin Valley Voice Frustrations As Negotiation Agreement Expires With City

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Residents of the Marin Valley Mobile Country Club delivered impassioned public comments regarding the conclusion of the city’s Exclusive Negotiating Agreement and lingering concerns about their community’s future at the Dec. 16 Novato City Council meeting.

An ENA is a contract where one party agrees not to negotiate with others for a set time.

Speakers described years of negotiations for resident ownership, significant financial and emotional investment, and anxieties about future stability, calling for concrete council commitments and structural safeguards.

Residents of the Novato mobile home park, primarily seniors, were in a dispute with the city regarding the property's purchase price, while the circumstances of the city's ownership of the park remain a point of discussion.

In 1997, Marin Valley Mobile Country Club seniors planned to purchase their park for housing security. They nearly paid off the $17 million bank loan, which the city guaranteed 28 years ago, but the city, the park's legal owner and landlord, reportedly demanded the residents repay the loan to finalize the sale.

The 319-unit complex housed about 400 elderly, mostly low-income, residents. With only $1 million remaining on the loan, the city rejected the homeowners' $20 million offer and demanded $26 million, including an extra $6 million for land residents claimed the city never paid for.

“I feel that you should have told us up front that you had no intention of to sell before we spent thousands of dollars and thousands of man hours producing a proposal over about a year and a half,” said John Hanson, a longtime community advocate, expressing deep disappointment. “That was all based on your original express desire for a win, win outcome.”

Marin Valley resident Carol Joy Harrison echoed these sentiments, describing widespread resident distrust.

“Almost all of the residents of Marin Valley feel that we’ve been led down the garden path, and the feelings go way beyond disappointment,” Harrison said. “[It’s] more like feelings of betrayal and anger, and in some cases, extreme anger.”

“We have concluded the ENA in Marin Valley, but I do want to echo what you’ve said, that there are questions that remain to be answered, and I can speak for myself and from our conversations, we remain committed to having those conversations,” said Councilmember Tim O’Connor.

Other speakers, such as Marin Valley residents Bill Davis and Janine Bradley, urged the city to deliver lasting solutions for affordability and security.

“There’s three big things that seniors have to worry about all the time: their health, affordability and security, top priorities always” Davis said.

Bradley called for a memorandum of understanding to clarify city obligations.

“Handshake agreements don’t work anymore,” Bradley said. “The city needs to demonstrate to the park and the entire city that it is serious about protecting this large and vulnerable community.”

The city declined to further comment on confidential negotiations.