City set to go mobile

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Thinking about parking a shiny, metal double-wide

mobile home on a half-acre lot between two houses? Think again.

The City Council on Tuesday will vote on standards designed to ensure

that manufactured homes don’t look like sore thumbs among traditional

houses. But mobile home park dwellers need not fear: The standards only

apply to mobile homes on regular residential lots.

“The idea is to have some kind of minimum design standard to ensure it

looks compatible with the neighborhood,” said Patricia Temple, the city’s

planning director.

Her department is recommending the council approve the standards,

which are mainly concerned with aesthetics. If approved, they would

prohibit shiny metal surfaces, require homes to be on a concrete or

masonry wall foundation disguised by skirting around the base, and

require that the homes’ roofs meet certain specifications. Also, mobile

homes more than 10 years old cannot be installed on lots outside of

mobile home parks.

The move was prompted by City Councilwoman Norma Glover in July after

a resident wanted to put a mobile home on a single-family lot. The new

rules likely won’t affect that homeowner, but instead will ensure that in

the future mobile homes will be compatible with their surroundings,

Temple said.

“The goal is to try to find a way to ensure that mobile homes are up

to the same standards as the other homes around them,” Mayor Tod Ridgeway

said. “Harmony and uniformity are the goals.”