Bangor planning board urges council to ease reconstruction rules for pre-1971 manufactured home parks

At its June 3, 2025 meeting the City of Bangor Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council amend the land development code to add reconstruction flexibility for manufactured home parks constructed before 1971.

Planning officer Anya Collette told the board the proposal lowers the minimum lot size for reconstruction to 2,500 square feet and removes minimum lot-width and lot-length restrictions for those older parks while keeping setbacks, lot coverage and impervious-area limits in place.

Collette said the changes are intended to reflect physical realities in older parks, which often have smaller lots that would otherwise be forced to remove units under current requirements. She said the code would still require a 20,000-square-foot minimum lot where individual septic systems serve each lot; parks with shared septic systems would need to provide a site-evaluator report showing the system is functioning. The amendment would also require documentation if a shared water-supply system is in use.

Collette said the draft pulls some landscaping and road standards from new-construction language into the reconstruction standard and removes the requirement that applicants demonstrate a hardship before qualifying for the more flexible rules.

Board members asked how many parks and units would be affected. Collette estimated two to three parks would be eligible and said the older parks she identified typically have at least 50 units, meaning the change would affect a substantial number of housing units in the city. She characterized that as an estimate and said exact counts are “not specified” in the presentation.

Collette also relayed written comments from a staff member, Reese, who suggested removing a redundant requirement in section 165-121(d)(1)(a) that the minimum land area for reconstruction equal the existing park area, reducing the 50-lot threshold for requiring a recreation area, and specifying that septic-system site evaluators be state-licensed. Collette said those suggestions were carried over from existing language and could be addressed in a future code update.

No members of the public spoke on the item. After brief board discussion, a member moved that the board recommend the council approve the amendment; the motion received a second and passed on a roll-call vote with Member Michael Bazinet, Member Ted Brush, Member Tricia Hayes, Member Ken Hoon, Member Janet Jonas and Vice Chair Jonathan Boucher all voting yes.

The board’s action is a recommendation to the City Council; any change to the land development code will take effect only if and when the council adopts it.