The Alexander City Council heard more details from City Attorney Chris Madison concerning what he says are needed changes to the ordinance that controls manufactured homes being placed within the City of Alexander. Commonly referred to as the Used Manufactured Home Ordinance, it actually covers both new and used manufactured homes.
The ordinance, adopted September 21, 2020, establishes standards concerning not only the placement of manufactured homes in general, but also the physical condition and age of a used manufactured home. It replaced a 2010 ordinance, that did not include the age requirement, in order to match the new zoning ordinance adopted in 2019.
The ordinance states prior to being moved into Alexander, or moved from one location in the city to another, the owner must apply for a permit. If not a new manufactured home it must be inspected for items such as loose or missing roof shingles and siding, broken windows, damaged flooring, windows, cabinets etc.. The ordinance also limits the age of a manufactured home to no more than 20-years in the year it is set-up. For example, this year, any used manufactured home set-up in Alexander can’t have been built before 2005.
The ordinance also establishes the end of using the term “Mobile Home.” When the Department of Housing and Urban Development established standards for factory-built housing in 1976 the term “Manufactured Home” was coined to differentiate between the old mobile homes, or trailers, and the new standards. And that’s where Madison began.
“The first thing we need to do is make sure our language is correct,” Madison said. “So mobile homes are a type of structure that was built prior to 1976. Following 1976, the term [is] manufactured housing. And that distinction is important because if a structure is built as a manufactured house, it meets Federal standards. And the cities are limited in what you can do related to rules by manufactured housing.”
Changing decades of using the term “Mobile Home” as a catch-all term for homes built in a factory was a tall order. Throughout the discussion during the September 15 council meeting, the mayor and council members were constantly correcting themselves when using the term mobile home instead of manufactured home.
Moving on to the age issue Madison said, “The biggest thing is related to the question of whether you can limit its age. ... I want to move a stick built house into the city. Does the rule limit me from bringing in a house that's 100 years old? The stick built. No, it doesn't. So you can't single out manufactured housing with that same kind of rule.”
Madison then went on to list regulations that can and should be established to control the placement of manufactured housing, both old and new. All of which are already included in Alexander’s 2019 zoning ordinance.
“Now, the other thing you have to do with manufactured housing is you are required to have a zoning district that allows manufactured housing,” Madison said. “So you have to have some zoning because that's how we control the structure and the structures in the city.”
Madison also listed, “(S)etbacks and sizing and those kind of like, it has to have [a] skirt, it has to be on [a] concrete pad, it has to be anchored down.”
“One of the things I noticed that I did not see in the ordinance, when I was looking at it, was we can require that any manufactured house that's moved into the city be moved by a licensed mover,” Madison noted. “I.E. someone who is permitted by the state to move manufactured houses.”
The requirement to use a licensed mover is not only lacking in the ordinance being discussed, but also does not appear in the 2019 zoning ordinance.
Madison continued, “Similarly, with the code enforcement and our rules, we can require that they apply for permits to move the manufactured house into the city to get a set-up [permit] so that we can do site inspection. Make sure it meets the setback requirements, make sure they put the skirting on it, make sure they have the concrete pad for it, all of these other requirements that we are capable of.”
Section-3 of the current ordinance states, “Inspection shall be made as required by each authority having jurisdiction during the placement of all Manufactured Homes to be located within the City of Alexander or within subdivisions regulated by the City. Following requirements do not apply to mobile home parks.”
At the time of its writing the term “(E)ach authority having jurisdiction” was intended to require the various utilities to handle the inspection of their own connections. While Alexander didn’t have an official building inspector at the time, inspection of how the manufactured home was set-up was expected to be done by someone from the city.
Section-6 of the Manufactured Home Ordinance does require applying for a permit prior to moving any manufactured home into the city. It also includes a fine if setting up a home without a permit.
Section-6 states, “A Set-up Permit must be applied for and issued prior to placement of a Manufactured Home on any site in the City of Alexander, Arkansas. Permit fees have been established by a separate ordinance. In the event a Manufactured Home is moved on site prior to the issuance of a permit, such fees are doubled.”
The same penalty for not having a permit is also stated in the ordinance that establishes permits for construction of residential and commercial buildings and manufactured homes.
The current zoning ordinance established the Mixed-Use Residential District (R-2.MU) to provide a mix of both site built and factory built homes. This zoning classification was established specifically to cover the mix of residential housing types found in the area known as South Alexander when the zoning ordinance was adopted in 2019. R-2.MU allows for Single-Family (site-built), Manufactured Homes, Modular Homes, and Prefabricated Homes.
Unlike other cities, Alexander dos not employ the use of an occupancy permit. That may change.
“And we need to look into our code enforcement rules that if a manufactured house is moved in, it does not comply with these [rules],” Madison said. “They didn't use a licensed mover, they don't have it set up right, they don't have the security [anchors] on it, they don't have the setbacks right, then you can actually issue a, you don't get your certificate of occupancy. Which means you can't live in the house until we've blessed it to do so.”
After Madison had set the stage for a discussion on what to do with the manufactured housing ordinance and the age requirement, Council Member Christopher Prowse broke the rhythm by asking how the change in names, from mobile home to manufactured home affects insurance.
“So, in regards to manufactured versus mobile homes, there's a separate insurance for manufactured house versus a mobile home,” Prowse said.
Trying to answer the question, Council Member Juanita Wilson said, “State Farm insures mine just like it would any house.”
“I work in insurance and we have separate policies for mobile homes [manufactured homes],” said Council Member Angela Griffin.
Mayor Crystal Herrmann stepped in to point out that unlike your typical manufactured home installation, using concrete blocks for support, Wilson’s manufactured home sits on a concrete slab and appears to be a typical house.
“Yes, she has a structurally sound foundation,” Herrmann said. “She can get a loan on her home. But if you don't do that, then you can't get a loan to, like, if you wanted to buy it.”
Herrmann also suggested it would be better for Alexander if going forward manufactured homes brought into the city were set down on concrete foundations.
“If it's not set up like Miss [Juanita] Wilson's, those people can't get loans,” Herrmann continued. ... “So if somebody wants to sell it, it's not going to become a burden in our neighborhood. It's going to be vulnerable.”
“So those are the things of like having the foundation and the blocks,” Madison said. “Those are rules that you can absolutely be [sic] in place.”
As for insurance Madison explained, “So the reason I use that term has nothing to do with insurance. (I)f it was built after 1976 from a company that builds these things, it's a manufacturing [sic] house.”
Madison also said requiring manufactured homes to be attached to a more traditional foundation will be a limiting factor on the age of the home being brought into Alexander.
“And then if you have it set up on blocks, really, if you wanted to move it, you put some axles under it, put some wheels on it, disconnect the water or sewer, electrical and tow it out,” he said. You can legitimately do that. Whereas if you go to the issue of discerning or the foundation portion of it, when it's there, it's there. So the requirement that it be permanently affixed, or on a solid foundation, or on a solid concrete pad, and those are all costs. Because what you're really trying to do is prevent the cheap 30-year-old manufacturing houses being brought in and being rented for $300.”
Mayor Herrmann relayed the story about a woman who didn’t bother to ask about permits before moving a manufactured home onto a lot.
“We even had a lady in the past couple of months,” Herrmann began. “Unfortunately, she bought a lot that didn't have an existing tap. She did not stop by city hall for a permit for us to be able to notify her that, that lot doesn't have [an] existing sewer tap.”
Herrmann said she didn’t come to city hall until after the home was moved onto the lot. The mayor doesn’t know when the manufactured home was moved in.
According to Madison the city can’t issue her a permit because the lot doesn’t have a sewer connection and one won’t be installed any time in the near future because of a moratorium on installing new sewer lines.
Herrmann said she has nothing against manufactured housing.
“I've had a manufactured home, I've lived in it, I've had a family that live in a manufactured home,” Herrmann began. “It's just our city is not very organized and uniformed in the way that it is laid out with some of the manufactured homes. And some of them are literally stacked on top of one another and we could be more uniformed going forward if we were to look at the zone map and clean it up a little bit. And then that could open certain properties in the traffic, the high traffic areas. If the mobile home comes off, then it can be, whatever’s there could be grandfathered in. But if that mobile home ever came off of there, then it could be utilized for commercial, or for duplexes, or stick built, or whatever.”
Herrmann asked about establishing a registration system for manufactured housing.
“Could we legally do a registration, a registered program for the, for mobile homes, manufactured homes in the city limits that do like a yearly registry?” Herrmann asked.
Madison replied, “I don't think you could do that.”
To clarify Prowse asked, “But just to be clear, this in no way will affect the current residents now, correct?”
“Correct,” Madison replied.
By the end of the discussion it was decided to schedule a workshop, which will provide council members more time to have a deeper discussion concerning any needed changes to the zoning ordinance, the land use map and other legal methods to guide future development in Alexander. It was noted since voting is not allowed at a workshop, that isn’t an issue creating an urgency to make a decision.
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