St. Tammany Parish is set to revisit its rules surrounding manufactured homes during the September 8 Planning and Zoning meeting, including a proposal that could make it easier for some existing manufactured home owners to replace or maintain their homes without going through a full rezoning process.
Councilman David Cougle said the Parish Council unanimously supported his motion in June recommending that Planning and Zoning consider bringing back a conditional use process for manufactured homes in residentially zoned areas.
The proposed language appears primarily focused on properties where a legally established manufactured home already exists. Among the changes, a manufactured home could retain its legal nonconforming status during certain periods of vacancy, removal or disconnected electrical service, and some owners could replace an older manufactured home with a newer one without permanently rezoning the property.
Cougle pointed to situations where homeowners can get caught in the current regulations simply because an older manufactured home is replaced, utility service is interrupted, or the property temporarily becomes vacant.
And this discussion raises a much bigger question about private property rights in St. Tammany Parish.
APR•St Tammany believes there needs to be a serious conversation about how much government regulation is appropriate on privately owned property, particularly in rural areas of the parish.
There is an understandable argument for tighter development standards inside dense subdivisions and incorporated areas where homes sit close together and infrastructure is shared. But miles outside of town, on privately owned rural property, should government have the same level of control over what type of home someone is allowed to place on their own land?
St. Tammany’s zoning maps can create situations where one property owner may be prohibited from placing a manufactured home on their land while another property owner nearby, sometimes even across the road, may be allowed to do so because the zoning designation changes.
Supporters of these regulations often point to planning, development standards, property values and public safety. But residents also have every right to question whether some of these restrictions have gone too far.
A manufactured home can be the only realistic path to homeownership for a family, a retiree, a young couple starting out, or someone trying to replace an aging home already sitting on family property.
The September 8 proposal does not eliminate St. Tammany’s manufactured home regulations, but it could provide some relief for homeowners already caught inside the existing rules.
Maybe the larger discussion should be this:
How much authority should St. Tammany Parish have over what someone chooses to put on their own private property, especially way out in the country?
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