Washington’s City Council voted 3-1 to reject a request to allow double-wide manufactured homes in the city’s residential-agricultural (RA-20) zoning districts if a special-use permit is granted by the Board of Adjustment.

Voting to reject the request were Mayor Pro Tempore Bobby Roberson and council members William Pitt and Gil Davis. Councilman Doug Mercer voted against the motion to reject the request. Councilman Ed Moultrie was absent from the meeting because he was out of town for a funeral.

The proposed change to the City Code would have applied to double-wide manufactured homes proposed to be located in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) and outside the flood-hazard area only. The Planning Board recommended not approving the proposal.

If the proposed change had been approved, it would have applied only to double-wide manufactured homes to be located on individual residential lots and used solely as permanent, single-family, residential structures. If the council had approved the change, to obtain a special-use permit for a double-wide manufactured home, 14 specific conditions had to be met. One of the conditions required that the double-wide manufactured home must be positioned on the building lot so the primary (front) entrance of the home is facing either a public or private street.

“The Planning Board felt the request is unreasonable due to inconsistencies with the zoning ordinance and the cost of placement of double-wide manufactured homes is not compatible with the surrounding areas in which they would be located and the adjacent zoning districts,” said Dot Moate, board chairwoman.

Mercer supported the proposed change to the City Code. He said the proposed change had several safeguards built into it that would help prevent mobile homes, including double-wide manufactured homes, from popping up throughout the RA-20 zones in the city’s ETJ.

“The first is this requires a special-use (permit), which means the applicant must come to the board to receive a special-use permit, and that appearance before the board would be advertised and everyone in the neighborhood would be notified, and they would have an opportunity to come speak for or against that specific permit,” Mercer said.

The council approved allowing commercial marinas within the city’s office and institutional zoning districts only if a special-use permit is issued for such a marina. The change to the City Code does not allow dry-stack storage of boats in those districts.

The Planning Board believes it was necessary to add commercial marinas to the list of permitted uses in the O&I districts to help regulate commercial marinas along the city’s waterfront areas. The change includes 13 specific conditions that must be met before a special-use permit could be issued.

“The Planning Board felt the request was reasonable due to the consistency with the land-use plan, the harbor-management plan and because the additional placement of a commercial marina would be compatible to the surrounding areas,” Moate told the council.

The council, in approving the change, chose not to add a provision regarding trash collection. Bill Sykes, a boater who lives in Washington and keeps his sailboat in the harbor, expressed concerns with the change not having a provision that addresses trash disposal at commercial marinas. The council decided marinas would be responsible for making sure they and their clients keep the marina area and adjacent waters clean. Should trash around commercial marinas become a problem, the city could step in and address the issue.

For additional coverage of the council’s meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.