In Santa Cruz County, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) is moving forward with rail and trail planning — but at what cost?

A growing number of residents believe the RTC is engaging in selective, inequitable enforcement of land use rules, targeting vulnerable communities while sparing more powerful ones.

Case in point: Castle Mobile Estates (CME) in Capitola is a senior and low-income community that has been in existence since 1971, with approval from HUD, the county and the city of Capitola.

Residents, many of whom are elderly and live on fixed incomes, received threatening letters in 2024 from the RTC, claiming their homes “encroach” on the rail corridor and must be removed or altered by June 30, 2025.

Failure to comply would result in the RTC performing the removals themselves and billing residents for the associated costs.

This threat came after the RTC finally completed a boundary survey in 2023, 11 years after purchasing the corridor in 2012.

At the time of purchase, the RTC’s own title report acknowledged encroachments. They did nothing for over a decade.

Now, with no offered funding, no HUD variances and no public planning relief, the burden is being shifted to elderly homeowners who have lived peacefully in their community for decades.

RTC claims only five homes are affected. That’s misleading. In truth, at least 16 homes in CME and a similar number at Blue & Gold Mobile Home Park are expected to face significant impacts, with costs running into millions of dollars.

So, what’s the difference between these homes?

Low-income seniors own them.

Compare that to Capitola Beach Villas, an upscale condominium complex on 41st Avenue that also encroaches on RTC property. (This was confirmed through a recent Public Records Act request.)

This double standard is indefensible.

If enforcement is truly about clearing space for a future rail or trail, why are only senior mobile home residents being threatened, while wealthy condo owners are left alone?

Legal experts representing Castle Mobile Estates have pushed back, citing the 1877 deed, prescriptive use, boundary estoppel and numerous other defenses, as well as the RTC’s prolonged inaction, as evidence that these homes have a right to remain.

Yet the RTC continues to press forward, putting elderly residents at risk of displacement and financial ruin.

It’s time to call this what it is: Selective enforcement that disproportionately impacts seniors and low-income residents.

At best, this is negligence. At worst, it borders on institutional discrimination and elder abuse.

Public infrastructure planning must be equitable, transparent and humane.

No community should be sacrificed quietly in the name of progress, especially not when others are spared for no reason other than socioeconomic status.

We must demand better from our regional agencies. The RTC’s approach to “solving” encroachment must be consistent, compassionate and legally defensible — not based on the size of someone’s bank account or the age of their roof.

Santa Cruz County cannot afford a rail or trail built on displacement.

Cami “Clemensen” Corvin is a Capitola resident, business owner and housing advocate.