Zoning in

“The current mobile home park code is written in reference to … other permits and the state health officers. Nobody has that. Not even Medicine Waters has that.”

In explaining to planning commission member Tom Westring how William Schorer’s property doesn’t qualify as a mobile home park, planning commission member Jon Nelson highlighted the importance of rewriting chapter 18.57 of Saratoga’s municipal code.

Meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 at the Saratoga Town Hall, the Saratoga Planning Commission gathered for the first time since the joint mobile home workshop in late January. The planning commission discussed proposed changes to 18.57 and possible zoning changes.

“We have gone through and made some red lines to the existing code to try and address the major factors that have been troubling us,” said Nelson, “specifically references to the health department and the permitting process that was just outdated.”

Nelson handed the discussion over to Will Faust, who serves as the Saratoga Town Council’s representative on the planning commission. Faust informed the rest of the commission, as they read through the red lined code, and those gathered in the meeting room that his initial attempt was to remove all references to the health department.

“My initial stab at this was to … really not editorialize on anything,” said Faust, “but just say ‘Hey, let’s get rid of anything that has to do with permitting a mobile home park and health and safety officer.”

After explaining his process, Faust asked the assembled commission members their thoughts on the updated code.

“I think it cleaned it up pretty well,” said Westring.

Westring added that, after the joint workshop, he had visited the Carbon County Geographic Information System (GIS) website. Using the definition under 18.06.330, he said he found 15 locations in Saratoga that qualified as mobile home parks.

“I didn’t see where we addressed what’s going on with those,” said Westring.

Faust said that’s where he would like to see a deeper discussion take place. He added that, taking the advice of Carbon County Commissioner Sue Jones, he looked at the municipal codes of six other towns in Wyoming to see how they approached the issue of mobile homes and mobile home parks. Faust looked at the municipal codes of Buffalo, Afton, Lovell, Lusk, Pinedale and Rawlins.

“I didn’t cherry pick these … these are ones where I could easily access their zoning ordinances online,” said Faust.

Buffalo allows mobile home parks in Resident Mobile Home Subdivisions (RMS) and the Manufactured/Mobile Home Community (MHC). Found in Chapter 29 of Buffalo’s municipal code, the purpose of the two districts is to provide a minimum acreage, two acres for RMS and five acres for MHC, and “an alternative to conventional housing.”

Under Afton’s ordinances, the occupancy of mobile homes within mobile home parks is allowed within the Temporary Housing (TH) district. Found under Title 17 of that town’s municipal code, the purpose of the district is to “provide affordable residential opportunities for temporary workers and some long-term residents living within authorized mobile home parks.”

In Lovell, the occupancy of mobile homes and the development of mobile home parks are only allowed in the Mixed Residential Zone District (MZRD).

The Town of Lusk, under its ordinances, allow the occupancy within the R-M, Mobile Home Residential District. The ordinances also allow the creation of subdivisions for mobile home parks that can either be annexed to the Town of Lusk or already within the corporate limits of the town.

The ordinances of Pinedale dictate that any new mobile homes must be placed within the Mobile Home (MH) district. Any mobile homes placed before the adoption of the ordinance are grandfathered until the structure is removed.

Rawlins allows single mobile homes throughout the town, but mobile home parks can only be established within the districts that allow them.

“The pattern that I was seeing from the research I did … there is a mobile home zoning district … where it allows for mobile homes on single lots and the development of mobile home and recreational vehicle (RV) parks,” said Faust.

Faust added that he and Nelson had talked about whether or not mobile homes continue to be allowed in RD 6000, if a separate mobile home district should be created and if the town should have development standards for new mobile homes.

“One direction to go is to allow mobile homes to exist within a mobile home district,” said Nelson.

Faust said that while that seems to be the way the aforementioned municipalities in Wyoming were going, he wasn’t implying it was the most perfect thing for Saratoga. He added that he believed that it was a discussion that the planning commission should have.

William “Bill” Schorer asked Faust if the plan was to limit the the placement of mobile homes within RD 6000.

“I’m not saying that,” said Faust.

Faust then took that moment to show the planning commission and those gathered in the room a printout of the town from Google Earth with different areas highlighted in yellow. He informed the room he had highlighted the areas of town that currently had a high concentration of mobile homes and could allow for the placement of mobile home parks.

“Most of these areas are kind of on the periphery of town,” Faust said.

Nelson added that, should the planning commission follow the lead of other towns in Wyoming, a mobile home could still be allowed in RD 6000 while a mobile home park would only be allowed in a mobile home district. After a brief discussion about RVs and where they belong in town, commission member Nora Asbury brought up the issue of affordable housing in the area.

“Is there a larger affordable housing issue in our town that we need to discuss as well?” Asbury asked “I think the commission should really support the long term growth of the town but also the needs of the residents of the town, too. Is that something we need to look at? How many residents are living in RVs year round?”

“We’ve touched on it several times in the last six months … the affordable housing issue. I think it’s pertinent to talk about that in terms of mobile home parks and RVs” replied Nelson, “By having the ability to live in an RV anywhere in town you are ultimately disincentivizing anyone from addressing the affordable housing problem.”

As the discussion continued, Nelson emphasized the need for a mobile home district as the possibility of future energy booms loomed in the town’s future. With the meeting drawing to a close, the consensus of the planning commission was that the development of an MH district was important to the continued development of Saratoga and that 18.57 should be rewritten to read as a zoned district.

The next Saratoga Planning Commission meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on March 13 at the Saratoga Town Hall.