Housing Measure Hasn’t Been Tested Manufactured Homes Law Taken In Stride, Officials Say

Coeur d’Alene has yet to confront the problem of manufactured homes springing up next door to traditional houses, though it’s been a year since the Legislature said it must be allowed.

City officials believe the change will come without a hitch. Real estate agents aren’t so sure.

Some welcome the change. Some believe it will hurt property values.

But no one has tested the measure within the city limits yet.

Lewiston city officials expressed alarm recently when they learned of the law, passed by the 1994 Idaho Legislature.

North Idaho, however, is not fazed. Bonner County has had an ordinance for years allowing manufactured homes and mobile homes in areas zoned for single family residences, County Planner Marty Taylor said.

“It’s not going to affect our unincorporated areas at all,” Taylor said. The surrounding cities may have to make changes. But many, including Sandpoint, already have mobile homes scattered throughout some neighborhoods.

Coeur d’Alene took it in stride and passed an ordinance allowing manufactured homes next to built-on-site houses a year ago, well ahead of the July 1996 deadline.

No one squawked. “That’s typical,” said Jean DeBarbieris, associate city planner.

The real test may be “when the first manufactured housing subdivision goes in, and those notices go out to everybody living within 300 feet,” DeBarbieris said.

She’s not expecting much of an uproar. The community is becoming more accepting of different sorts of housing, she said.

In addition, the law has strict standards about what kind of manufactured homes can be installed in residential neighborhoods. That includes requiring siding, roofing and construction material similar to surrounding homes and a garage or a carport.

When it’s done right, you can’t tell the difference between the two types of houses, she said.

Housing subdivisions with the right covenants possibly could prevent manufactured homes from being introduced into some neighborhoods. But city officials would not enforce such a prohibition. That job would fall to the homeowners association in any given neighborhood.

Because manufactured homes are built indoors and the company can keep stricter control over subcontractors, “there is a case to be made that factory-built houses are better,” DeBarbieris said.

Perhaps, but some Realtors still predict resistance to the doublewide next door.

“Typically, it’s not been a real good thing for property values,” said Dan Flanagan, owner of Century 21 Realty.

Though the quality of manufactured homes has improved substantially, traditional housing is more labor intensive and is considered higher quality, he said. That sentiment is key.In the past, loans for manufactured homes have commanded higher interest rates.

Bill Madsen of Tomlinson Black Realtors said he welcomes the change in the law because traditional homes are becoming so expensive. And before the law changed, there were too few places where manufactured homes were allowed.

In spite of his enthusiasm for the change, Madsen is cautious about which neighborhoods should have manufactured housing intermingled with traditional structures. “I hope the planners don’t allow them everywhere,” he said.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Ken Olsen Staff writer Staff writer Kevin Keating contributed to this report.