The residents of the Polynesian Mobile Home Park in Newhall will have to pay a $68 rent hike per month for the next 20 years to pay for flood damage sustained by the park in 2004 and 2005.

Santa Clarita’s Mobile Home Rent Adjustment Panel voted unanimously to approve the rent hike at a public hearing Monday night.

Although the rent increase is almost three times less than what park owners had wanted, it is still a burden for residents of the park, said the panel’s mediator John Fuller.

“It’s tough for residents to have to pay that kind of money," Fuller said after the meeting. “That’s the best we could balance it between the owner and the residents.”

City of Santa Clarita staff will now have to draft a resolution based on the panel’s decision. The panel will vote to approve the resolution on March 10, said Redevelopment Manager Armine Chaparyan.

The owners of Polynesian could not increase its rent until after the panel has made its decision. The panel works independently of other city committees and hears appeals of rent increases based on Santa Clarita’s rent-control ordinance, city officials said.

The fight over the proposed rent increase began in September when residents were told by mail that their rent would be increased by about 39 percent.

Residents were given two options to cover the cost of the flood-damage repairs: either a permanent rent increase of $135 or a $200 increase for 20 years. A private consulting group hired by Santa Clarita to analyze Polynesian’s financial data concluded in January the park could recover its costs by increasing rent between $15 to $25 dollars.

Lawyers representing the park owners told the panel at the last meeting that the formulas they used to calculate the rent hike were flawed.

Jim Simon, who helped put the report together for consulting firm Rosenow Spevacek Group Inc., said the report’s findings are accurate based on all the information park owners have provided them.   

“(Lawyers) tried to point out assumptions we made that were incorrect,” Simon said, “but they have not supplied what the correct information would be.”

One sticking point has been determining how much money park owners should get for spending $1.6 million on flood repair projects.

Santa Clarita’s municipal code does not narrowly define what a reasonable rate of return would be, Simon said.

RSG has provided all the analysis and information they have been asked to prepare, he said.

“We’ve had to interpret the city’s ordinance,” Simon said. “The panel has to decide what information is most relevant.”