Manufactured homes get OK

Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999 | 11:25 a.m.

People living in unincorporated Clark County who want to move into manufactured homes will soon have more freedom to place them throughout urban and rural areas.

The County Commission on Wednesday approved an ordinance that allows manufactured homes that meet certain design criteria to move into any part of unincorporated Clark County.

The local ordinance was necessary to bring county rules into compliance with a state law, passed earlier this year and effective January 2000, which relaxes rules governing locations for manufactured homes. The county law also takes effect Jan. 1.

The law applies to manufactured homes that have a minimum of 1,200 square feet, are at least 20 feet wide, are permanent, and are made of stucco, masonry, wood or metal, among other design standards. The homes will be treated legally as any other single family home. That means they can be placed on any plot inside the county as long as they abide by any pre-existing architectural or zoning rules.

Manufactured or mobile homes that do not meet the new design standards can still be sited in mobile home parks.

Lesa Coder, current planning director for the county, told commissioners that new manufactured homes now look very similar to homes built the traditional way, from the ground up. They often include red-tile roofs, stucco facades and other architectural features common in Southern Nevada.

Coder said her office has already received phone calls from people interested in putting up manufactured homes in areas previously off-limits.

"I do think there folks out there who may be anxious to utilize this particular ordinance," Coder told the commissioners.

Gerald L. Govan, a director of the Nevada Manufactured Housing Association, told commissioners that his organization supported the ordinance.