Planning Board to Discuss Manufactured Housing

By Ron Fitzwater

The Ashe County Planning Board met in regular session Thursday, Feb. 5, and although they were two members short, they were staffed fully enough to make a quorum.

Missing from the board were Vice-chair Darrell Hamilton and newest member Gene Hafer.

High on the list of topics for discussion was wording to clarify requirements for private driveways. The suggested changes to the current ordinance will be forwarded on to the county commissioners for their input.

"Basically what the planning board members are looking at is requiring a 45 foot right of way frontage on a county standard road. Also, there is some very specific wording in regards to cul-de-sacs to allow three lots to come off of a cul-de-sac," said Zack Edwardson, Ashe County planning director.

The board then discussed items of board interest, which included the decision to take one ordinance per meeting, as regular business allows, and conduct a comprehensive review of the ordinance to ensure that it fits the needs and wants of the county. When they are satisfied that an ordinance is right, they will send it to the county commissioners for their input and adoption.

"The first one we are going to work on is mobile homes," Edwardson said.

"We have talked a lot about sub-divisions and junkyards, so the board wanted to move on to other issues of concern to residents, and manufactured housing regulation is one of them, and we really haven't talked about mobile homes in about four years."

Edwardson said that the discussions would be pretty open-ended, but would specifically include a discussion on abandoned mobile homes.

"Basically, what we will be talking about are single-wide and double-wide HUD approved housing. Not modular homes or recreational vehicles, although those issues may come up for discussion in the near future.

"Our focus for now is to look at manufactured housing and especially at the abandoned properties," Edwardson said.

Edwardson said that in taking this look into the county's ordinances, they might leave them alone or make changes and even scrap an ordinance and start fresh with a new one.

The Ashe County Planning Board meets the first and third Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the small courtroom on the third floor of the Ashe County Courthouse in Jefferson.

For board information or to download a copy of county ordinances, click to www.ashecountygov.com/Planning/index.htm