Manufactured home news and views: public pressure crushes Mohave County officials attempt at banning older manufactured homes
On January 18, 2016 Manufacturedhomes.com posted a story reported by the Lake Havasu News Herald in which the Mohave County Board of Supervisors had approved an ordinance banning the siting of all manufactured homes over seven years old.
In our blog response titled, “ARIZONA: MOHAVE COUNTY OFFICIALS SEEK TO BAN SALE OF OLDER MANUFACTURED HOMES, PUBLIC FIGHTS BACK” we echoed the local editorial outrage over this restrictive ordinance. Fearful it would become law and devastate the numerous manufactured housing communities; we spoke out about the push to ban this affordable form of housing and its potential for creating financial havoc. Undermining one of the largest real estate sectors in Mohave County.
Demonstrating an infinite lack of wisdom and callous disregard for their own constituents, two years prior the Mohave County Board of Supervisors began studying the proposed plan that would drastically alter the areas housing dynamics. Mandating age restricting terms and conditions on the resale and placement of prefabricated homes built prior to 2008!
HUD approved and factory built manufactured housing
Feeling political pressure from angry constituents…
The Kingman Daily Miner reported on the electoral blowback over the ill-conceived plan, announcing the Board of Supervisors planning and zoning commission unanimously passed a new ordinance. Allowing HUD built manufactured homes – built after June 15, 1976 – to be sited on private property throughout Mohave county.
Poorly conceived and forcefully imposed, the Board had originally approved the overly restrictive ordinance Dec. 2, 2015 – requiring that all manufactured housing placed in Mohave County be no older than seven years old. Outraged over the county’s ham-handed attempt at restricting housing options, citizens united in an overwhelming opposition. Putting County supervisors on notice, manufactured homeowners, property owners, retirees, vets, installers and retailers spoke before the planning and zoning commission, convincing the supervisors to abolish the county’s “dumb” new ordinance.
Public pressure crushes Mohave County officials attempt at banning older manufactured homes
What almost transpired in Mohave County, Arizona is not an unusual occurrence. In some politically shady areas of this country local housing officials and regulatory bureaucrats attempt to discourage manufactured home placement within their communities via zoning restrictions and arbitrary ordinance implementation. Ostensibly banning manufactured homes based upon some foul and unfounded myths, as well as greedy developers seeking land for pricey stick-built homes.
And while there are plenty of jurisdictions sprinkled across this freedom loving country where manufactured homeowners are blindsided by politicians and others working in collusion for their own best interest – Mohave County, Arizona represents a rare example of local resistance to it.
Apparently, Mohave County politicians did not know their demographics: Mohave County encompasses approximately 13, 311 square miles in the middle of the Mojave Desert with a sparse older population of about 200,000. Most residents reside in close proximity to the Colorado River, which flows across the width of the county … and the majority of those are manufactured homeowners.
