Palisades Mobile Home Park Listing Angers Former Residents

A listing for a fire-ravaged mobile home park in Pacific Palisades has former residents and local politicians riled up.

A marketing brochure for the 173-unit Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates describes it as a “blank canvas for redevelopment” in a location that is “ideally positioned for a transformative residential or mixed-use project,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The property’s owners listed it for sale with CBRE and Marcus & Millichap.

But the offering is off base, because the zoning doesn’t allow redevelopment, and local officials are unwilling to rezone it, the outlet said.

The property fronts the Pacific Coast Highway, and a sale and redevelopment could prevent residents of the low-income mobile-home complex from moving back to the property, the outlet said.

The listing confirms residents’ suspicions that the property owners would sell the land after the Palisades fire destroyed their homes.

Northern California real estate mogul Edward Biggs bought the property in 2005 and ownership was split between his first and second wives after his death in 2021.

The owners and brokers tied to the offering did not respond to the Times’ requests for comment.

The family has not performed routine maintenance and previously sought to redevelop the park into a more lucrative resort community, the outlet previously reported.

The sales pitch clashes with local officials’ view of what can actually be built there.

Mayor Karen Bass’s office said rebuilding the mobile home park or constructing low-density single-family housing are the only options under current zoning.

“Multifamily and mixed-use development on this site is not allowed by existing zoning and land use regulations,” Bass’ office said.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the area, said she is “not interested in a zone change,” adding “what we are interested in doing is restoring this property as a mobile home park for the people who were there and remain displaced.”

Beyond zoning restrictions, the Palisades Bowl property is subject to a state coastal housing law aimed at preserving affordable housing as well as a Los Angeles ordinance that protects mobile home residents from sudden displacement.

Lisa Ross, a real estate agent and 33-year resident of the Bowl, said she approached the owners alongside independent mobile home park developers who were willing to buy and restore the complex and floated a proposal for residents to purchase it collectively. She didn’t receive a response.

“It’s a feuding family,” Ross said. “That’s also why we had so many problems with maintenance and with upgrades in the park.”

Residents of the Bowl were left out of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s debris removal efforts. The dragged-out cleanup process led the City of Los Angeles to declare the area a public nuisance in October.

— Chris Malone Méndez