By By Ben Alexander/The Meridian Star
Feb. 1, 2001
Members of the Meridian City Council are considering a change in the city's zoning laws to make it easier for residents who live in manufactured housing to upgrade their homes.
Council members discussed the issue at length during a Wednesday work session at City Hall.
The discussions arose after some residents complained when they wanted to replace their older house trailers with newer doublewides, but were turned down by the city zoning board because of protests from other neighbors.
The city's current zoning laws allow manufactured housing only in certain areas of each ward, making about 38 percent of land inside the city available for manufactured housing.
Some residents whose manufactured homes had been on-site before the ordinance took effect are now finding it hard to replace the older models because of protests from neighbors, who moved in around the manufactured homeowners.
Under current zoning laws, an entire area has to be re-zoned to accommodate doublewides.
Ward 3 Councilman Barbara Henson said that's when some neighbors get upset.
The proposed change would automatically give singlewide homeowners the right to upgrade their trailers to a doublewide without having to go through the red tape of zoning board approval.
City attorneys and the city's Community Development Department are working on a new ordinance that will be presented to the council.
Ben Alexander is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail him at balexander@themeridianstar.com.