Tuesday night’s Council meeting closed out with a 26-minute discussion on the March approval of a building permit to allow the placement of a modular home at 211 E. Clay Street, and whether or not the Council can restrict modular home placement in the future.
“In my opinion it came in, like a double wide mobile home,” said Ward 3 Alderman Richard Turner. “I’ve tried to look at different variations of what manufacturers call modular homes. In my opinion this is a manufactured home. It has steel beams, and six axles underneath it, just like a mobile home. I know I have talked to three people at least that have complained about this. One of the ladies the city turned her down for her permit. Now she’s very upset. The gentleman who owns the property next door to it, Chris Richardson, is very upset about it. And understandable as we told him he couldn’t do it. I don’t know that everybody knows this or remembers this, but we turned down several people along 134 for putting those in and ended up in a lawsuit because of that. Because of this new development, we have some issues here. The real estate people are unhappy about this. I think we need to look at how we’re going to handle this in the future.”
“I think it’s going to be a very nice looking structure,” said Ward 2 Alderwoman Robin Moore. “I did a little research online and there are some really pretty pictures of modular homes. In insuring modular homes and manufactured homes, the insurance is different. I guess maybe we need to strengthen the ordnance and make it more restrictive as to what’s allowed.
“We’re playing with peoples lives here,” continued Moore. “In that area, there are several homes it’s very similar to. I just think we need to be more careful in the future. People have worked very hard to get a nice new home and because of an error made at this council has that in jeopardy and that’s not right.”
“I want to handle this a couple different ways. First, I want to go down the legal side of things,” said Jefferson Mayor Rob Baker, “First and foremost, a mistake was not made by Council.”
Baker then asked Ward 3 Alderman Richard Turner to read the section 18.2.b portion of the City Ordinances, which states:
“Sec. 18-2. Manufactured housing prohibited; exceptions. (b) Prohibited; exceptions. The city prohibits the location of any mobile home, HUD Code manufactured home, or recreational vehicle within the corporate city limits for purpose of being used as a dwelling unit except within sections 1, 2, 3, 4,5, and 6 of the city…”
“We have five sections in town where you can park a mobile or HUD manufactured home,” said Baker. “Hud Manufactured Homes are different from modular homes.”
Baker then explained a modular home is titled with the land.
“It must be set on a permanent structure,” he said. “Legally it’s real property is the terminology. Chris Richardson has had discussions with Eric [Kuykendall] as this has been setup and is very happy with the way it looks. Chris owns the entire city block across the street from it. I can understand he was unhappy and now he’s not.
“A HUD manufactured home is federally regulated on how its’ built, restricted and such,” continued Baker. “It’s done that way so it can be built in Texas and moved to Oklahoma. A modular home is state regulated. So the State of Texas regulations are more restrictive than manufactured homes. It’s legally, in the state of Texas, a site built home and treated legally the same way.”
“If you go buy a top of the line doublewide, like this came in looking like, it’s probably $80-85,000,” Baker said. ”The price tag on this home is $198,000. Another difference is HUD is red tagged – basically a vehicle registration. A modular is blue tagged as real property.
Legally we cannot prevent a modular home from coming into a city. A municipality is not legally able to prohibit. You can restrict it. We can go and edit city ordinances to be tighter. We can put dollar values for particular areas. We cannot prevent [modular homes].
“We can prevent HUD manufactured. We can restrict the heck out of that. Modular homes in Texas can be eliminated. The next step would be to put modular home specific restrictions.
I’m glad the question came up. When it came it, it looked like two double wide mobile home sections.”
“The lot it sits on is on the tax rolls for $32,000. It’s about to be $235,000,” said Baker.
“I’m the new property owner for the property across the street,” said Sharon Goolsby. “I’m thrilled to death with it. This makes the neighborhood look a whole lot nicer.”
“I think we can constructively work together and get public input and put some reasonable restrictions in place,” said Baker.
“I was there when the ordinance was enacted. The intent of the ordinance, I can promise you, was that this couldn’t happen,” said former Mayor Carey Heaster. “But, let’s get it right moving forward because I don’t want to buy anything else as a taxpayer.” Heaster was referring to a council decision to allow a multi-family home to be built in a single-family defined area. Council ultimately had to purchase the property.
Baker suggested City Administrator Eric Kuykendall look at the ordinance and make recommendations for changes to address modular homes.
The agenda item was a discussion only item, so no decision was made.
For more information on HUD manufactured homes and Modular Homes, see:
• https://www.tml.org/DocumentCenter/View/2250/Mobile-Homes—2012-04-PDF?bidId=
• https://www.claytonhomes.com/studio/defined-mobile-manufactured-and-modular-homes/
• https://www.lpratthomes.com