The City of Del Mar, Ca. Introduces an Ordinance Allowing Manufactured Homes to Mingle With $3.1 Million Mansions
The following contains excerpts from a news report via the San Diego Reader titled, “No trailer park trash in Del mar.”
For the first time, the city of Del Mar, California is carving out rules that will allow manufactured homes to mingle with mansions in single dwelling neighborhoods.
Currently, there are no manufactured homes in the city.
The Del Mar City Council on September 5 will introduce an ordinance allowing the dwellings – which are made off site and held to a federal code – to be installed on permanent foundations in residential zones that permit one home per lot.
Regulations related to moving buildings and other aspects of manufactured homes have existed in Del Mar since 2014, but with zero mobile homes to date, they haven’t enabled them. The city says the ordinance is needed to ensure there are “no impediments” to this type of housing.
In addition to very low-density zones, including the low-density beach residential area, the prefab units can be placed in mixed residential and commercial zones, as well as the Carmel Valley Precise Plan. That is, everywhere a single dwelling unit can go.
The new ordinance, alongside the city’s draft accessory dwelling unit rules, is one of several the council must adopt before the end of the year to comply with state law meant to boost the supply and affordability of homes. That, or lose some local control under state housing law.
To obtain a permit for a manufactured home as a primary residence, applicants face the same approval process they would for a conventional dwelling in that zone, including requirements for utility connections, height, lot coverage, setbacks, parking and other development standards.
Manufactured homes coming will look like other houses in the town.
The city can limit them by age to those made not more than 10 years prior to the permit application. As for architectural standards, a city report says they will “look substantially like a conventional single dwelling unit” as to roofing and siding material, along with parking and zoning requirements.
Squeezing in more – and more affordable housing – has been an uphill climb in the small coastal city. According to real estate website Redfin, the median sale price of a home in Delmar was $3.1 last month. And the city’s Housing Element shows that in 2017, single family units still made up most of the housing stock (61.6 percent).
For now, residents who oppose the changing landscape of housing options have focused on the tsunami of short-term rentals, which many would like to see completely banned from residential zones.
