KANNAPOLIS — City Council decided Monday to allow mobile home owners to replace old units with new ones, even in areas where zoning now prohibits mobile homes.
The council actually struck down a proposed change to the city’s zoning codes Monday that would have prohibited such replacement of grandfathered mobile homes.
Several people opposed the change at a public hearing. Linda White, a Moose Road resident, has spoken against mobile homes in the past but said she can’t see why owners shouldn’t be allowed to upgrade.
“I think they should be allowed to improve their property,” she said. “I’d much rather see a nice, permanent dwelling — even if it comes rolling down the road — than to see it deteriorate.”
Mike Legg, city planning director, said the proposal was in keeping with the council’s policy on mobile homes before the board adopted a new zoning ordinance in November.
Until then, mobile-home owners in “incompatible” zoning districts — business, industrial or any residential zone besides a mobile-home park or overlay district — could replace their homes only after fire or natural disaster.
That policy aimed to filter out mobile homes from areas of the city where they didn’t belong, a problem left from before 1984 when the city incorporated and then adopted its first set of zoning regulations.
With the change enacted Monday, , mobile-home owners in those districts could replace their homes with new ones after a public hearing and with permission from the Kannapolis Board of Adjustment.
The council agreed with the speakers, most of them voicing the opinion that a new mobile home would be a better neighbor than an old one allowed to become rundown.
“If there’s any desirability to maintain property value, it would be better to have a new one than an old one,” Councilman Richard Anderson said.
Some council members said they’d look more favorably on prohibiting replacing mobile homes in business districts than in residential districts.
In other business, the council:
- Approved the annexation request of developers Stephen Hawfield and Richard Simmons of 28 acres of land on Camp Julia Road. The council previously agreed to supply water to a new subdivision there, but that agreement is now pending state approval of a water-system extension plan.
- Recognized Kannapolis Police Officer Rodney Rivenbark for completing the Traffic Enforcement and Investigation Program, making him one of only 10 officers statewide to hold the certification.
- Recognized Mark Burris and Chris Morris of the city’s streets department for providing a description to police of a man who robbed a woman and stole her car in the parking lot of Oak Avenue Mall in February.
- Approved city participation in providing irrigation systems for a soccer field on East First Street and two ball fields at Kannapolis Middle School. The city will pay $10,500; the
A.L. Brown Booster Club, the middle schools’ PTO and Cabarrus County will combine for $14,575.
The systems cannot be used under current mandatory water restrictions, but Gary Mills, parks director, said the city had to act now to take advantage of a matching grant from the county.
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