Ordinance to require newer trailers

Grovetown city officials hope to adopt an ordinance to gradually upgrade mobile homes located within city limits.

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City Council members will discuss the proposed ordinance at 6 p.m. Monday during a meeting at City Hall. The ordinance will require mobile homes brought into the city be no older than 5 years from the date of the trailer's permit application, said Connie Smith, the city's planning and zoning director.

"We've got mobile homes in the city that have been here since probably the 1960s or '70s," she said. "I just want to see citizens who do rent the mobile homes have a better choice of their living conditions."

The current ordinance allows mobile homes dating back to 1976 in the city.

Many Grovetown mobile home parks, such as ones on Katherine Street, Flythe Street and Spring Street, have trailers that are at least 30 years old.

City councilman Robert Newman said the proposed ordinance would improve the quality of life for city residents and might draw more people to live inside Grovetown city limits.

"If we can control what we're letting come in, we can control pretty much how (the city) looks from the start," he said.

The ordinance will not affect existing mobile homes in Grovetown unless a trailer has to be replaced.

"If something ever happens, it gets burnt or they go to replace it, then they will have to comply with the ordinance," Smith said.

Mobile home owners violating the ordinance will be penalized, Smith said.

"They have to get a permit before they pull the mobile home in," she said. "We're going to be keeping a pretty good check on this."

Smith said city officials also are working on revising the entire ordinance dealing with mobile homes on individual lots and in mobile home parks, but said the process is complex and could not give a time frame for its completion.

At the meeting, officials also plan to discuss clearing business signs and advertisements from city rights of way, Newman said.

"We're just trying to clean up," he said. "We're trying to bring Grovetown into the 21st century."

The mobile home ordinance could go into effect following a second reading at the City Council's Dec. 8 meeting.