By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

The Columbus County Planning Board is looking at revising the county’s mobile home park ordinance.

Thursday (tonight) the board will meet to discuss a new proposal that would replace the current ordinance.

“My expectation is that Thursday we will begin getting into the nuts and bolts of it,” interim County Planner Don Eggert of the Cape Fear Council of Governments said. “I’m not sure how long the process will take.”

Eggert added that he would like to see the board move as expeditiously as possible. “I would like to see them get through this in three to four weeks.”

One major change would be the types of properties regulated by the ordinance. Instead of three or more mobile homes on a single tract of land considered a mobile home park, the new proposal would regulate parks with only six or more homes.

“Every mobile home park shall contain at least six spaces before it is classified as a mobile home park,” the proposal reads.

Only property that is rented or leased would be considered a mobile home park. A provision included property sold in the classification of a mobile home park was a major concern of the board in previous discussions.

Park owners or developers would no longer be required to hire a licensed and registered land surveyor to draw the submitted plans.

Under the new proposal, park plans “shall be prepared by” a licensed surveyor or “the owner or his/her authorized agent.”

A requirement of minimum N.C. Department of Transportation standards for roads in the park is rewritten to state that: “streets shall be maintained in a manner to be free from pot holes, breaks in pavement, rough surfaces, ponding of water and associated problems which would impede or cause hazards to motor vehicles.”

Streets are required to have two to four inches of rock, marl, gravel or pavement, according to the latest proposal.

While some portions of the new proposal lax requirements, others add new ones.

The new proposal makes no mention of what type of surface material the parking space must have, but it does require two off-street spaces per mobile home space.

The current ordinance calls for “hard surface” parking, but it does not specify the number of spaces.

Other suggested changes include acreage required for a park. The law now requires a minimum of two acres.

The new proposal calls for a minimum of three acres.

The new plan is similar to a recent subdivision ordinance proposal presented to commissioners in that the plan makes no mention of a county planner and instead leaves certain duties to the county manager.

“The county manager shall determine if the proposed plan is in accordance with the design standards set forth in the ordinance,” the new proposal reads in part.

Several details in the present ordinance are left out of the new proposal.

Many of those provisions appear not to be enforced, such as a required inspection of mobile home parks every two years, a requirement that a developer or mobile home park owner is responsible for, and user fees until a deed has been transferred to a buyer, and others.

The planning board meets Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Economic Development conference room of the Columbus County Administration Building.

Once recommended amendments to the existing ordinance are proposed to the Board of Commissioners, a public hearing would be held before the ordinance could be adopted, Eggert explained.