Newberg recently amended its Development Code regulations regarding manufactured housing. The amendments do the following:
· Create a new manufactured dwelling district. Only manufacturing housing is allowed within this district. The amendment does not place this district on any land at this time.
· Adopt the state definitions for manufactured housing.
· Reorganize some sections, for example to clearly separate regulations for recreational vehicles and manufactured homes.
· Resolve a few inconsistencies, such as clearly determining the procedure type for some approvals.
· Implement clear and objective standards for placement of manufactured dwellings as required by state law.
· Allow recreational vehicles in manufactured dwelling parks and RV parks with no residency time limits as required by state law.
The amendments can be viewed at the links below.
The amendments have two purposes:
Purpose 1: Implement the Affordable Housing Action Plan strategy to facilitate new areas devoted to manufactured housing. Manufactured housing provides a good source of affordable housing for many households, both old and young, couples, singles and families. About 10 percent of Newberg housing is manufactured dwellings. However, few new areas of manufactured housing are being created, and in fact some manufactured housing is being lost due to the right-of-way acquisition for the bypass.
Purpose 2: Bring Newberg’s manufacturing housing codes up to date with state law and current industry practices. While Newberg’s manufacturing housing rules have been tweaked over the years, many of the rules are still outdated. Some of the language has not changed since 1968, though practices have changed substantially since then. In addition, there have been amendments to state law controlling local zoning for manufactured housing, and Newberg has yet to update its code to match these requirements.
