Some mobile homes near 38th Avenue and the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line in Live Oak are in the rail line’s right-of-way and could be moved for the rail-trail project. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local file)

LIVE OAK >> Tim Dowling and his 13-year-old daughter have lived in Castle Estates Mobile Home Park in Capitola for eight years. The double-wide mobile home he bought has sat in the same spot for more than five decades. So it was a surprise to receive a letter last winter saying his home was partially on public land, and that he’s responsible for moving it.

Dowling lives in one of 44 mobile homes along a roughly 950-foot stretch of the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line owned by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. Last year, the commission determined those households have buildings or fences within the rail’s right-of-way. 

In anticipation of a paved path next to the tracks, the commission has ordered those households to move from the right-of-way by June 2025. Four of the households have been ordered to replace their homes with smaller models or leave the park altogether. Costs could range from about $2,000 for a relocated fence to more than $100,000 for a downsized home, according to a transportation commission report. That’s money mobile homeowners, and the nonprofit that owns the land, said they shouldn’t have to pay.

Late Thursday morning, Dowling pointed down the road to his neighbor’s house. “She’s got to move that seven inches,” he said. “That’s ridiculous.”

Rail-trail plans in Live Oak

The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission bought the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line from Union Pacific in 2012. Commission leaders plan to revive the corridor with a walking and biking path next to train tracks from the North Coast to Watsonville. 

In parts of Westside Santa Cruz, a paved path has been built beside the tracks with the intent to reuse or replace the tracks for a future passenger rail line. 

This year, the Santa Cruz County supervisors approved environmental documents that clear the way for a similar trail from Live Oak to Seacliff. The commission plans to complete the trail design in early 2026 and start construction later that year.

Rail-trail designs are expected to finish in 2026 for Segment 10 of the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line from 17th Avenue in Live Oak to Jade Street Park in Capitola. (Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission)

In narrow sections of the corridor, fitting a trail and space for a future train is difficult. That’s the case for the stretch between Castle Estates and Blue & Gold Star Mobile Home Park on 38th Avenue. Castle Estates is in Capitola and Blue & Gold Star is in Live Oak. 

Owners of each of 44 homes in both parks have been told to remove and replace their back fences, which are within the rail’s right-of-way. Many have been ordered to shift their homes away from the tracks by inches or feet, though some may be able to avoid the moves if they receive state permission to be closer to the fenceline than regulations allow.

Four homes may need to leave the park altogether, according to a Sept. 5 transportation commission consultant’s report. If those homes were shifted away from the rail corridor, they would butt into the mobile home park road beyond the minimum clearance required for emergency service vehicles, the report stated.

Dowling’s home is one of the units ordered to leave the park or downsize, but he’s not planning to do either. He’s willing to shift his home forward, and plans on asking the Central Fire District to relax the road clearance requirements. 

Some of his neighbors’ mobile homes are so old, they may not survive even a small move, he said. Relocating them “means cut them up and throw them in the trash,” he said.

Across the tracks, Blue & Gold Star resident Veronica Valdivia anticipates losing part of the house she’s lived in with her husband for 22 years. Instead of moving, she’s planning to remove an accessory room off the back of the mobile home that extends into the right-of-way. “We don’t have another place to go,” she said in Spanish.

“I pray to God to stop all this, because there are many homes that are going to be destroyed.”

Who will pay

Most of the mobile homes required to move must shift less than 3 feet, but the cost to do so could top $30,000, according to the transportation commission consultant’s report. That doesn’t include the cost of relocating utilities or temporary accommodations for homeowners during the move.

Homes that don’t have room to shift could be moved to another park for about $40,000 each, or replaced with a smaller home for about $150,000 each, the consultants wrote.

The transportation commission isn’t responsible for the cost of moving homes from the right-of-way, said senior transportation engineer Grace Blakeslee. “We recognize that it’s a sensitive issue, and we also recognize that RTC cannot give a gift of public funds and allow private uses of public property,” she said.

The commission could vote to provide financial support to move the encroaching homes, but there are currently no plans to do so, she said.

Some mobile homes near 38th Avenue and the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line in Live Oak are in the rail line’s right-of-way and could be moved for the rail-trail project. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local file)

While residents own the mobile homes in Castle Estates, Costa-Mesa based nonprofit Millennium Housing owns the land. Neither chose the location of the homes, most of which were placed in the 1970s by a prior park owner. 

“It is difficult to say who should be responsible” for the cost of moving the homes, Millennium Vice President Lori Carraway wrote in an email. “The majority of the affected residents are elderly and very low income,” she wrote. As a rent-controlled property, Castle Estates residents “found solace in our community knowing that their housing would be secure and affordable until they no longer can reside here.” 

Dowling said he would struggle to afford moving his home, and hopes some source of grant money could cover part of the cost. 

Valdivia said her family would have to pay to replace the wall if their back room is removed. “We don’t have the money,” Vadivia said. “We don’t know what we’re going to do.” 

Report set to clarify whether homes must move 

Carraway, of Millenium, suggested the trail could detour onto neighboring streets to bypass the mobile homes. As homes sell or are replaced, they could be relocated out of the right-of-way. 

The detour initially was considered as a cost-saving measure for trail construction, but would push the California Transportation Commission, a major funder of the trail, to substantially reduce its grant for construction, Blakeslee said.

By the end of the year, the regional transportation commission plans to publish a follow-up to the September report with more precise cost estimates and “more clarity around options for removing” the encroaching mobile homes.

District 1 Santa Cruz County Supervisor Manu Koenig represents the area and sits on the regional transportation commission. He said the commission should charge the mobile homes rent for using land in the right-of-way and pause efforts to move the homes until after an anticipated conceptual plan for passenger rail is published in January. 

“We’ll know if building a train is feasible and whether we have any immediate need for that space,” Koenig said. “At that point we’ll have all the information we need to decide how to proceed.”

Dowling said he and his neighbors are in a holding pattern for now.

“It’s a quagmire,” Dowling said. “There’s no clear path here.”

Clarification: After publication of this story, Dowling clarified his legal position and this story was updated.

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