Lee County officials consider mobile home ordinance update

TUPELO — Lee County officials are considering some significant updates to its 30-year-old guidelines on mobile homes.

Jon Milstead, Senior Vice President Planning & Property for the Community Development Foundation, gave the Lee County Board of Supervisors a presentation on proposed changes to the county’s mobile home regulations, Monday, which will set further regulations and clarify existing rules.

“We’ve seen a lot of different challenges with manufactured homes over the years. We also seen … things that the current ordinance has not been able to do,” Milstead said. “What we want to do is make sure people have safe places to live and good homes that are going to maintain their value. … We are trying to minimize those situations where we have dilapidated properties.”

While cities and townships often have strict guidelines in place on where mobile homes can be placed withing their limits — if at all — counties are often more lenient in both their placement and overall conditions.

County Administrator Ronnie Bell said the county's current ordinance, which was originally adopted in 1994, is outdated and needs updating to fit modern health and safety regulations. The discussion was, in part, spurred by issues with water and sewer systems failing to meet regulations on some properties with manufactured homes.

“What you don’t want to do is put a unit in where the septic doesn’t work,” Bell said.

If passed, the proposal will make some significant changes to the county's mobile home rules. These include requiring a final inception to gain a certificate of occupancy; a two-acre minimum for properties; a rule in which mobile homes must be placed at least 60 feet from the road; a brick stucco, stone or veneer skirt around the structure; a single home per lot; a minimum lot width of 200 feet; placement no closer than 250 feet from another structure; a required covered front porch with guard rails and a pitched roof, among other requirements.

District 5 Supervisor said built-on-site buildings in the county have the same sewage systems as mobile homes, so it makes little sense to make an acreage requirement for mobile homes and not traditional houses just for sewage issues.

The current proposal excludes tiny homes, which are prefabricated buildings similar to mobile homes and sheds, and recreational vehicles. Milstead said this is because most tiny homes do not meet standard living requirements such as insulation, electricity and water hookups, and cannot get permits.

Any mobile home already permitted in the county will be grandfathered in, but if the owner were to buy a new mobile home on the same property, it will be subject to the updated ordinance. There will also be measures for variance hearings and appeals, Milstead noted when asked.

The are 2,000 permitted mobile homes in Lee County.

Though not an official public hearing, the board allowed for questions from the public. Residents' concerns included the cost of the regulations, the language that disallows “tiny homes," and allowing for variances.

Micheal Russell, from Tupelo-based manufactured, mobile, or modular home sellers Town & Country Homes, said the ordinance as written excludes a large portion of mobile homes sold in the state, noting size requirements make it almost impossible to get a permit for a single-wide mobile home, and roofing requirements plus mandating bricked skirting will price out many buyers.

“The width can’t be four times (smaller) than the length,” he said. “ That basically eliminates 85% of single wides. Is that what we are trying to accomplish?" he said. "Manufactured homes are supposed to be affordable housing, but if you make it a hinged roof on a permanent foundation, with brick skirting and covered porches at every doorway, it is impossible to sell that product for under $200,000.”

Russell also noted that the ordinance calls for a level concrete pad for the mobile home, but regulations actually require concrete pads to have a small slope to them.

Supervisors ended the discussion by taking the proposal under advisement. After adjustments brought up during the public meeting, the supervisors will bring the topic back up for discussion and a vote.

Lee County resident Richard O. Wilson said he believed the board should form a proper committee to tackle the ordinance. He later said after the meeting he believed the matter should be brought before a vote of Lee County residents in the November election.

Mobile Home Ordinance update draft