Stonewalling on manufactured housing ordinance needs to end

By Staff
July 8, 2001
Even casual observers are beginning to suspect that the Meridian city council and the city's planning commission are stonewalling on the issue of amending a manufactured housing ordinance.
They've been bouncing the issue around for months. Studying the legal ramifications. Holding public meetings. Presumably reading the fine print of a proposed ordinance and trying to figure out what it might could possibly mean to anyone who might could possibly one day have an interest.
While this comprehensive review is well and good, the basic issue goes unresolved: Should mobile home owners be allowed to upgrade from old single-wides to new double-wides without changing an area's zoning?
The newest version of the proposed ordinance would allow owners of single-wide manufactured homes to upgrade to double-wides without a change in the area's current zoning. Currently, double-wides are zoned for different residential areas than single-wides.
During a meeting last week, the city council amended the proposed ordinance, making it effective for only six months and allowing single-wide owners a small, one time window of opportunity to make the upgrade. Then, for some inexplicable reason, instead of adopting the amended ordinance, the council bounced the whole thing back to the planning commission.
Both the planning commission and the city council have heard emotional pleas from owners, who want to upgrade instead of moving. However, homeowners around some of the manufactured homes have also voiced strong opposition to the measure, claiming it would devalue their property.
Enough is enough. The city council has final authority over these sorts of issues, not the planning commission. The city council needs to take final action on this much-debated ordinance and move on to the next problem.