10-year limit might be max for mobile homes in Grovetown

Grovetown City Council is scheduled to vote Monday on an ordinance to put age restrictions on mobile homes brought into the city.

//

Council members will hold the second public reading and vote on the ordinance at 6 p.m. at city hall.

The ordinance will require that mobile homes brought into the city be no older than 10 years from the date of the home's permit application.

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

"Most of our neighboring counties also have a 10-year limit, except Richmond County," Councilman Barry Davis said. Augusta does not restrict mobile homes by their age.

The ordinance will not affect existing mobiles homes in Grovetown.

City council members turned down an ordinance last year that proposed a five-year limit on the age of mobile homes.

Connie Smith, the city's planning and zoning director, said her department and city officials received a lot of citizen input on the first proposed ordinance, primarily from older couples on fixed or limited incomes.

"What we don't want is to have a five-year limit and we lose residents because they can't afford it and they go elsewhere," Smith said. "That is the purpose of us compromising to a 10-year limit."

The ordinance will affect individually owned mobile homes and those in mobile home parks.

The new ordinance includes provisions not addressed in the current rules. No mobile home applications will be approved for the city's main corridors -- Robinson Avenue, Wrightsboro Road and Katherine Street. The ordinance also imposes restrictions on replacement of existing individually owned mobile homes.

Under the new ordinance, no additional mobile home parks will be approved.

Smith said "true" mobile home parks must be at least three acres. Only 10 of the city's more than 30 parks meet that qualification. Those not meeting the qualifications are "grandfathered" in, but will not be allowed to replace mobile homes.

"I think that it will improve the quality of life that we offer in Grovetown," Davis said. "Two, it will improve the appearance of those mobile home areas, because you are bringing in newer model homes."