State inspectors return to mobile home park 30 days after
citations issued; find ‘park operator has taken little action to
correct’ hazards
Gilroy – State housing officials say the operators of a south Gilroy trailer park have “taken little action to correct” health and safety hazards cited last month after a major sewage outbreak, but officials would not say if they are poised to shut the park down.
State inspectors returned to Velladao Mobile Home Park last week, 30 days after issuing dozens of citations to both the owner and residents who live in the mish-mash of 25 trailers and mobile homes, tucked out of view near the corner of Luchessa Avenue and Monterey Road.
“A re-inspection of the park was conducted on May 8, 2006, revealing that approximately 70 percent of the cited resident violations have been corrected,” Janet Huston, spokeswoman for the Californian Department of Housing and Community Development, wrote in a statement. “[H]owever, the park operator has taken little action to correct the 38 cited health and safety hazards. HCD is now considering its next course of action with the park operator.”
Though Velladao lies within Gilroy’s borders, HCD has oversight of the park as a transportation facility.
Possible enforcement action can range from additional citations for unfinished repairs to a suspension of the park’s operating license, which could force the relocation of residents.
Huston could not disclose a final decision or when it would come, though she said the agency plans another round of inspections June 7.
She said a final decision about the park’s future would “depend on the nature of the violations that are not corrected.”
In early April, HCD officials ordered an extensive list of repairs ranging from small upgrades to the park’s electrical and lighting system to a complete re-paving of the road. They also called for a thorough investigation and repair plan for the sewage system, a network of above-ground sewer lines that spewed 700 square feet of fecal matter and other waste in mid-March.
Contractors have cleaned that spill and fixed portions of the system, but another sewage outbreak Friday exposed the need for additional repairs.
“It was another back-up like the last one, only smaller,” park manager Robert Collins said. “We took care of it on Friday.”
He said he had not yet received a call from residents about what appeared to be a third sewage leak at the site of the original outbreak in March. On Monday, a narrow trench dug by one of the residents was carrying liquid away from the leak between two trailers.
“We noticed it yesterday when it started to smell,” said Martha Ybarra, who lives next to the leak and was one of the women who reported the initial outbreak in March. “(My daughter) could not sleep Sunday night. It was unbearable to be inside.”
Resident manager Nancy Aguilar speculated that the liquid, which was running clear Monday as it passed over several pieces of fecal matter, was coming from a water pipe in one of the neighbor’s homes.
“I think it’s the plumbing under their trailers,” she said. “They have to take care of that (themselves).”
She pointed out that several neighbors had yet to take down illegal structures cited as violations by the state.
As for the health and safety violations issued to park management, Aguilar said that “they’re doing their best” to comply with the orders.
So far, park managers have trimmed back tree branches near power lines, covered exposed electrical outlets in a laundry house, removed old tires and other trash, and patched some potholes. Aguilar said they are getting additional price quotes before proceeding with more extensive road repairs.
Collins estimated that owner Thomas Velladao, an accountant from Petaluma, has spent $10,000 to $16,000 on repairs, excluding the clean-up cost of the sewage spill on Friday.
Collins said he asked the state for guidance on additional repairs and for an extension on the compliance deadline, but has not heard back. He hoped to allow additional time for tenants to remove illegal structures and comply with various violations issued by the state, worrying that responsibility for those violations will ultimately fall on the park’s operators.
“It would be helpful if the state followed up with me,” he said. “I plan on pursuing completion of the work and I have not ever tried to hide anything from the state.”
