BOBBY ARDOIN Editor/Consulting Writer
The St. Landry Parish Council has agreed with the consent of parish president Jessie Bellard, to create a parish wide, 30-day emergency ordinance which establishes stricter standards for newly-developed mobile home parks.
Bellard said during a special Council meeting last week that the emergency ordinance, which is now effective, includes road, drainage and construction regulation procedures that are currently in place for all St. Landry Parish rural residential subdivisions.
The emergency ordinance approved by the Council last week is scheduled to be discussed, and perhaps later amended, before becoming permanently effective.
“What we plan to do is have developers of the mobile home parks follow the same regulations that are in our subdivision ordinance. Right now these developers don’t have to follow any type of drainage or plans for roads. They also sometimes bring in any type of old trailers and set them up,” Bellard told the Council.
Bellard noted that often mobile home park developers attempt to load their developments with what he said are substandard trailers.
“It’s time that we change that and step up our game,” said Bellard.
Roads and drainage in parishwide mobile home parks are currently considered private covenants.
For the past several years council members and three parish presidents have listened as residents in mobile home parks have complained about substandard roads, lack of garbage collection and drainage issues inside their developments which they either rent or own.
Residents who have made their complaints have been told by council members that there is not much the parish can do about their situation, since the roads are private.
According to the emergency ordinance, new mobile home subdivisions will no longer contain private streets, roads or drainage. Instead all the roads following the final passage of the ordinance will have public streets, roads and drainage that comply with parishwide standards.
Additionally the mobile home park ordinance indicates that mobile homes placed inside of new developments will be required to contain homes that are no older than 15 years at the time of their arrivals inside the parks.
Bellard also noted in his presentation before the Council that construction permits for mobile home specifications will not be issued until the construction on the parks are complete and the final plats have met Council approval.
Council member Wayne Ardoin suggested that the parish examine the regulations for mobile home parks in other parishes.
