By Patricia Older
POPLARVILLE — POPLARVILLE — A public hearing for a 107-site RV park in Nicholson sparked an impromptu discussion between the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors Monday morning on whether or not to enact a moratorium banning future mobile home parks through-out the county. RV parks fall under the same guidelines for mobile home parks.
Supervisor Patrick Lee of District 4 asked board members following the public hearing if they should consider moving in such a direction. “Now that we are done with (the public hearing for Alison RV Park), what about a moratorium on mobile home parks?”
Sandy Kane Smith, supervisor for District 5, agreed, noting that in Louisiana, St. Tammany Parish had recently enacted a moratorium preventing new mobile home parks from building within the parish. “Now they are all coming in our direction,” said Smith, noting that the county had three applications for mobile home parks at this time.
That started the spirited discussion among board members, with others not agreeing a moratorium was the immediate answer.
District 3 supervisor Hudson Holliday countered that the county had a public hearing process and that anyone wanting to develop a mobile home park would have to get approval from the county beforehand. “I have strong reservations in telling people what they can live in,” said Holliday.
Board president, and District 1 supervisor Anthony Hales, agreed, noting that although he wouldn’t use words as strong as Holliday’s, he was “kind of in agreement with Mr. Holliday.”
Hales said a moratorium wouldn’t prevent a mobile home park if someone was intent on building it, explaining that a property owner is already able to put up to three dwellings on a parcel of land. He said, “Say you have five acres and you put three dwellings on it,” said Hales. “And then you divide it into five, one acre parcels and then you can put three dwellings on each parcel and before you know it, there’s a mobile home park.”
Holliday said that he believes the way the board needed to approach the problem of mobile home parks is to address the density issue, pointing out that maybe the board needed to strengthen some of its laws. “I think the way to change this is to change the covenants, to strengthen what is there,” he said.
Ed Pinero, Pearl River County Director of Planning agreed, telling board members that it is the density of most mobile home parks which leads to the trouble spots and bad reputation some earn. “Mr. Holliday has hit on a point,” said Pinero. “The density is the problem and that density takes a toll on the infrastructure with far too many people in such a confined space.”
Hales summed it up, with all of the board members acknowledging he had a point. “We will meet and look through our options,” said Hales, adding that not everyone could afford a house to live in. “We can do this without discriminating against anyone while still protecting the tax base of the county.”
What sparked the discussion on a possible moratorium was the public hearing for preliminary approval for the RV park in Nicholson proposed by Jim Alison. The 107-site recreational vehicle park will be located off of Cliff Mitchell Road.
A neighbor of the proposed RV park asked board members what did they plan to do about the request “for a mobile home park.”
Alison, who was in the audience, spoke up and said, “It is a RV park not a mobile home park. I plan on making it a real nice facility with paved roads and concrete slabs.”
Pinero reminded board members that RV parks are governed by the same guidelines for mobile home parks. He said that for now, all the board was being asked to do was give preliminary approval for the project so that the developer could move forward while other issues, such as sewer and water, were worked out.
A representative for Nicholson Water & Sewage said that at this time, it did not have the capacity to provide the park with services, but that the utility were trying to secure funds for expansion. “We do not have the capacity to service it,” he said. “But once we reach the capacity to serve him, we have no problem with it.”
Alison, saying he already had six slabs poured, said that even if he could not get water from Nicholson, he was prepared to build his own water and sewer system, indicating that without the preliminary approval, he would be at a standstill.
Lee then questioned board members if the county had anything in place to prevent the RV park from becoming a mobile home park in the future, given that it was covered under the same guidelines for trailer parks.
After some discussion about passing an ordinance to limit it to just a park for recreational vehicles, which would hold up the preliminary process, Alison, sounding a little exasperated, replied, “I don’t want a mobile home park.”
Lee said, “But what if you decide to sell it? What stops the next person?”
Hales asked board attorney Joe Montgomery if the board had any legal recourse it could follow to limit the project to exclusively an RV park. “Mr. Alison has indicated he is willing to sign any documents saying it was would stay a recreational vehicle park, but as Mr. Lee pointed out, if he sold it, it could become a mobile home park,” Hales said.
“I’m thinking of a conditional approval,” said Montgomery. “If Mr.. Alison is willing to make a concession it would never be a mobile home park.”
Holliday did not think putting conditions on the approval were necessary at this point, saying that even if the project was given approval, the site plans for a RV park differ from a mobile home park, making the transition difficult if someone tried to change its use. “If I’m not mistaken, a mobile home park has requirements for green space, street lighting, turn around space for the larger size mobile homes,” said Holliday. “So a mobile home park has a lot of requirements that if he tried turning it into a mobile home park it would be quite difficult.”
Montgomery was still leery of just passing a straight forward approval for the project, saying he still favored a conditional approval. “If you approve this you are opening a Pandora’s Box for a mobile home park,” he said. “I would say conditionally approve it as a RV park and not a mobile home park and if they ever want to make it a mobile home park — if it stops being used as a RV park — they must come back before the board.”
Board members took Montgomery’s advice and gave conditional approval to the preliminary plans.
The next Board of Supervisors meeting will be at 9 a.m. Feb. 9, in Poplarville.
