Council amends mobile-home park rules, limits new building standards to future parks

The New Iberia City Council voted to adopt a package of amendments to a proposed mobile-home park ordinance that will apply building standards only to new mobile-home parks while operational standards will apply to both new and existing parks. The change narrows the ordinance’s immediate construction requirements while keeping sanitation, maintenance and operational rules citywide, council members said. Council members and staff said the amendment is intended to avoid forcing older parks to meet construction rules meant for new development while still giving city inspectors authority over cleanliness, trash placement, parking and access. Councilor Troy Como moved the set of amendments and Councilman David Merrill seconded the motion; the council then voted to amend the ordinance and move forward with the measure. Among the items the council added or clarified: the municipal definition of a trailer or mobile-home park was retained in the ordinance text as “a lot of record on which two or more occupied trailers or mobile homes are harbored”; the ordinance keeps a stated maximum density of 12 units per acre; building standards will apply only to new mobile-home sites while operational standards (sanitation, trash removal, required inspections and licensing) will apply to all parks; language describing acceptable skirting was narrowed to give specific durable options; and all refuse containers must be situated on private property rather than in the public right-of-way. The council removed a pair of sentences from the draft that would have required park owners or operators to maintain common toilets, showers and similar fixtures in a way that could be read as shifting cleaning duties onto owners for facilities intended to be used by individual occupants. The council also deleted a sentence requiring “common drinking cups” and left only a requirement that water be provided from faucets (the council agreed to keep the faucet language but struck the sentence about prohibiting shared cups). Council members debated the threshold that turns a group of mobile homes into a regulated park. Staff read the municipal definition that begins “Trailer or mobile home park means a lot of record on which two or more occupied trailers or mobile homes are harbored,” and several council members said that the city’s tighter inspection and licensing standards are useful but that the practical effect of a low numerical threshold can create unintended consequences in subdivisions with one or two spare lots. The council left the statutory definition in place (two or more) and directed staff to address issues involving nonconforming uses — for example, how single replacements on a lot are handled when a unit is removed and later replaced — through the city’s nonconforming-uses code. Council discussion also addressed private vs. public road standards inside parks. The council agreed to require private streets to be paved in asphalt or concrete and to require public streets to meet the city’s higher street-construction standards; members asked staff to draft clear definitions for “private road” and “public road” and to reference the subdivision ordinance where appropriate. On exterior appearance, the council narrowed acceptable skirting options after members expressed concern about plywood, rusted or salvaged materials. The draft amendment lists manufacturer-approved skirting (the skirt sold with the manufactured home) and 26-gauge prefinished metal as acceptable durable, new options; councilors said the intent was to prevent unsafe or visibly deteriorated material while allowing reasonable, durable choices. The council also agreed to a provision that would require garbage containers to be located on the mobile-home park property rather than placed in the public right-of-way, responding to constituent complaints that curbside placement has damaged pavement and created hazards. Council members said they would take up a separate, future amendment that would impose additional building rules on existing parks if members decide to extend construction standards beyond newly sited parks. The council instructed staff to prepare the related wording and to return with language addressing nonconforming uses, replacement timelines, and any necessary cross-references to other sections of the municipal code. The ordinance amendments were proposed as a single package; the council voted to amend the ordinance to reflect the changes and to proceed to a final vote on the ordinance at a subsequent meeting.