Council Alters Zoning to Save Trailer Park

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to thwart plans to shut down the 27-unit Woodley Trailer Lodge in Van Nuys and replace the mobile home park with a commercial development.

The move was initiated by Councilman Joel Wachs to prevent developer Yechezkel Lehavi from scrapping the trailer park, evicting its tenants and building a commercial or industrial project on the site. By adopting the Wachs proposal, the council changed the zoning of Lehavi’s property from manufacturing to residential-mobile home park.

The one-acre parcel, the site of a mobile home park since 1948, is surrounded by industrial properties, including a machine shop and a plastics manufacturing company.

A city Planning Department hearing examiner earlier had recommended disapproval of the Wachs plan. Not only is the mobile home park incompatible with the adjoining industrial sites, but it is also highly vulnerable to noise from the nearby Van Nuys Airport because mobile homes are “nearly impossible to soundproof,” the hearing examiner warned.