The Olney City Council approved a temporary ban on mobile homes inside city limits as they work out zoning rules designed to protect property values, possibly directing the mobile homes to areas of town with larger lots and requirements for elevated foundations, City officials said.
The ordinance prohibits the installation of mobile homes for occupancy as a residence in the City of Olney, effective immediately. The Council did not specify how long the ordinance would be in effect.
The Council entertained some discussion as to the definition of “mobile home,” with Interim City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon commenting “this is only for mobile homes.”
“This does not involve modular homes,” she said.
Johnny Moore, owner of Johnny Moore Insurance, told the Council that the difference between the two structures “is a gray area.”
“A modular home is what we would consider to be a home that’s just built off-site, moved in, the foundation is set, it’s not going to be moved again,” he said. “The manufactured and mobile homes, they’ve got running gear, they can be jacked up and moved real easy if you wanted to. And they are insured different ways. There is a special policy for manufactured homes. A true modular home that sits on a foundation that can be written on a true homeowner’s policy.”
Mayor Pro Tem Tom Parker said the ordinance probably will stay in place “until we can get zoning finished.”
“The intention was to stop the infill of lots where the primary residences of people were, not so much where the rental stuff is,” he said. “A mobile home going into a place that has primary residences in it doesn’t do anything for the value of the neighborhood.”
Mr. Parker said the City wants to encourage mobile homeowners to develop parts of the city that have larger lot footprints, including areas that were not previously zoned for residential development. The Council will consider granting variances, he said.
“You don’t really want to ban anything because there are always creative ways to get things done - but for most people if they are putting that type of a home up, they are usually on an elevated foundation at some point,” he said. “Looking at flood plain areas where we may have a … flood potential, it would allow that land to be used for that type of development as a residential area … because it would have to have some kind of elevated foundation anyway.”
The City recently allowed a woman to move her mobile home from the county to a lot off Church Street and State Highway 79, “as an exercise to see how this would work,” Mr. Parker said. The mobile home was placed across multiple lots in a “park-esque” setting that would work well for other mobile homeowners, he said.
“We were having people who were grabbing used mobile homes... where they stuffed them into lots so you see the end of them,” he said. “That’s not what you want. That doesn’t help the community. It’s not to stop it – it’s to stop the randomness of it.”
213 E. Main St. PO Box 577 Olney, Texas 76374