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Supervisors May Change Paving Requirement For Mobile Home Park

 

Yalobusha supervisors worked with Andy Paul (standing) during Monday’s Board of Supervisor meeting in Coffeeville to ensure that new regulations for manufactured home parks are viable. Paul is working to develop a small manufactured home park on County Road 105 and is only one of two people who have appeared before the board with questions about the regulations since they were adopted in January.

WATER VALLEY – Yalobusha supervisors at their Monday meeting appeared receptive to changing a guideline adopted in January that would require pavement for a manufactured home park in an unincorporated area of the county. 

Andy Paul, who proposes to develop lots for manufactured homes in a 3.37 acre tract on County Road 105, met with supervisors accompanied by North Central Planning and Development District (NCPDD) representative Steve Russell. 

Russell is assisting Paul and the county to direct projects into compliance with Stewardship Yalobusha guidelines. Russell addressed sewer treatment, access and setbacks among other requirements contained in the comprehensive county plan for land development standards. Russell also discussed preliminary and topographic drawings that the developer had provided outlining proposed lots within Paul’s development.

“I think there are currently two manufactured homes there … he’s talking about possibly in the immediate future putting in two or three more,” Russell said.

Russell said that under the Stewardship Yalobusha guidelines the minimum lot size is 5,000 square feet.

“The preliminary drawing I’ve got doesn’t have any dimensions on there. … There would need to be some type of final plat submitted to the board including the dimensions and so forth,” Russell told supervisors.

“There are standards for roads in manufactured homes parks,” Russell continued, including a 20-foot wide paved road. The NCPDD representative said that Paul’s plans to expand an old logging road for access to the manufactured home lots meet width requirements but that he proposes to surface with gravel.

“Andy’s been real patient and gracious with us and I want to make sure that we get it right going forward because we’re setting a precedent for the county and that we get it right for Andy,” board president and beat one supervisor Cayce Washington said. Washington said that he and county engineer Karl Grubb had visited the site.

“Andy and I talked about the road specifically, and I told him the greatest concern there is fire and ambulance being able to get in and out of there,” Washington continued. “We talked about a standard for the road to build and the pavement thing came up. Are we going to say we absolutely have to have the pavement, period, or are we going to go with a road that’s prepped to the standard that meets … a foundation built to the standards that meets Karl Grubbs (specifications).”

Paul told supervisors that he planned to retain private ownership of the road with access easement to each lot.

“You’re going to have to change your standards,” Beat 5 supervisor Gaylon Gray said. “You can’t have a paved road (requirement) and then say ‘Well, it’s alright not to have one.’”

Gray said that as stated in the new Stewardship Yalobusha standards, the pavement requirement applies to a private road as well as a public rode that provides access to the lots.

“We’ve got to have a plan,” Beat 3 supervisor Lee McMinn told Paul. “We’ve got to have all the details, all the questions answered.”

“It might be a good idea to tweak that wording some,” Russell said.

“On your paving?” Gray asked.

“Yea,” Russell replied. 

“In my opinion, the main thing is that it’s plenty wide and they can turn around a fire truck and it’s safe and it’s solid,” Gray said.

Washington said the county engineer had obtained standards used in similar circumstances in Grenada County that Yalobusha supervisors might consider. “I think all you’re going to have to do is modify your road if we ease off the pavement side of it,” he told Paul.

“We want to encourage and facilitate growth but we don’t want to do it to impede people, but we want to do it right,” Washington said.

The Stewardship Yalobusha plan and regulations  were adopted after almost two years of discussion after news broke in early 2017 that four Oxford men had purchased an existing trailer park in Water Valley and confirmed long-term plans to expand the operation in the county where, outside of flood plain regulations, there were no county regulations for property development.

In other action during Monday’s meeting supervisors voted unanimously to:

• Approve the sheriff’s department’s acceptance of a used van donated by the Coffeeville School District;

• Accept the sole bid of $500 for hay cutting on 40 acres adjacent to the Ajinomoto facility at Oakland;

• Pay claims of $54,494.86 and $1,326 to Hills Construction and Willis Engineering, respectively, in connection with the Ajinomoto expansion;

• Record in the minutes items stolen from the Beat 5 barn, including a cutting torch, welding gas bottles and a pressure washer;

• Approve exceeding weight limits on certain county roads to facilitate timber harvests;

• Pay claims totaling $308,449.15.

Supervisors also discussed development of a take-home vehicle policy for county employees.

During executive session, supervisors discussed with board attorney John Crow two items that involved potential litigation. No action was taken, officials reported after the executive session was ended.

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