New ordinance approves law for abandoned properties

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 9:21 AM CST

An old mobile/manufactured home can only be replaced with a manufactured home that is no more than five-years-old. This five-year requirement is a far cry from the original draft of the proposed ordinance, which said any manufactured home can come into the city. In other words, a home built after 1976.

Alderwoman Barbara Bishop has been the biggest proponent of strict requirements on the age of manufactured homes replacing the city's handful of existing mobile and manufactured homes outside of the city's trailer courts. Bishop originally wanted only brand new homes to replace Ashland's old ones to ensure neighbors' property values. But compared to the original post-1976 requirement, she'll happily accept the five-year limit. She believes the new requirement accomplishes the goal of maintaining property value.

Although she was happy to see the beefed up requirement, something was missing from the slimmed down ordinance. She wondered, who's going to enforce these idealistic regulations?

"I hope we will find a way to monitor that," Bishop said. "I didn't see anything in the document about that. I hope something satisfactory gets worked out to make sure this happens."

At the Aldermen meeting, City Attorney David Bandre told Aldermen that this was really more of a tool that allows the City to get the ball rolling when it comes to these abandoned properties. Individual cases are of course different in nature and there's no precise letter of the law that can oversee all aspects of a very sensitive process.

Luckily, the City has few sensitive situations to worry about. Only 20 or so lots apply to the ordinance. Heard told Aldermen that monitoring these properties should not be a problem. He thinks that he and Police Chief Scott Robins, with guidance from Bandre, can easily afford the time to make sure the ordinance is enforced.

The City wants this enforcement to be done tactfully.

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