Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Zoning Modulars topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Terrebonne planners set Dec. 18 hearing on new modular-home definition and limits on portable units
Summary
The commission voted to place proposed zoning language on the Dec. 18 agenda that would define 'modular home' and make many modular placements subject to Board of Adjustment review; staff also proposed banning permanent use of shipping containers, office trailers and similar units in residential zones.
The Terrebonne Parish Regional Planning Commission on Monday voted to place proposed zoning changes on the Dec. 18 agenda that would add a definition for “modular home” and tighten rules on portable storage and office trailers in residential districts.
Administration told commissioners the draft definition is intentionally short: “It's a prefabricated structure built to international building code standards, assembled on-site from factory built modules.” Staff said the change is intended to reduce confusion between modular homes and mobile homes and to give officials clearer authority to manage placements in single-family neighborhoods.
Under the proposal discussed by staff, modular homes in R-1 and R-2 residential districts would require review by the Board of Adjustment; modulars in R-3 would be treated as a special exception. Administration explained the Board of Adjustment can impose conditions aimed at ensuring a proposed modular placement “doesn't alter the character of the district” and that appeals of board decisions go to the courts rather than the council.
Commissioners raised practical concerns. Commissioner Thibodeaux asked whether modular units would be required to sit on permanent foundations; staff replied that “that's the case now,” and that modulars must meet local foundation and flood-elevation requirements. A local contractor on the commission cautioned that modular units often are built to earlier iterations of the International Building Code and said that difference could “put us on the same playing field” unless state and local code requirements are harmonized. Staff said they would raise the concern with the Louisiana State Construction Code Council.
The draft also would expand the existing prohibition on keeping portable storage units as permanent accessory structures to explicitly include shipping containers and office trailers, a measure staff said responds to repeated instances where such units initially used for storage or job-site offices later were converted to dwellings.
Next steps: the commission set the item for a public hearing on Dec. 18; after that hearing staff said it intends to forward any approved amendments to the parish council for consideration.
