Plainville Board of Health
Mobile Home Park Regulations
SECTION TEN
10. RULES AND REGULATIONS ON MOBILE HOME PARKS
10.1 SCOPE OF RULES AND REGULATIONS
Pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 140 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Board of Health of the Town of Plainville hereby establishes the following rules and regulations governing the establishment, development, and operation of mobile home parks.
10.2 DEFINITIONS
The following words as used in these rules and regulations, unless a different meaning is required by the context or is specifically prescribed, shall have the following meanings:
Mobile Home: A dwelling unit built on a chassis and containing complete electrical, plumbing, and sanitary facilities and designed to be installed on a temporary of permanent foundation for permanent living quarters.
Mobile Home Park: Any lot or tract of land upon which three (3) or more mobile homes occupied for dwelling purposes are located including any buildings, structures, fixtures, and equipment used in connection with mobile homes.
Mobile Home Lot: A parcel of land provided for the placement of a single mobile home and the exclusive use of its occupants within a mobile home park.
Mobile Home Accessory Building: Any awning, cabana, ramada, storage structure, carport, fence, windbreak, porch, or similar structure established on mobile home lot for use of the occupant of the mobile home.
Mobile Home Pad: That area of a mobile home lot which has been reserved for the placement of a mobile home.
Occupied Area: The total of all area covered by a mobile home and roofed mobile home accessory buildings on a mobile home lot.
Park Street: A private way which affords principal means of access to a mobile home lot or permanent building.
Permanent Building: Any structure erected and constructed and permanently affixed to the ground it occupies within any mobile home park.
10.3 GENERAL PROVISIONS
10.3.1
No mobile home park shall be established, developed, or operated in the Town of Plainville, nor shall any existing mobile home park be altered, modified, or extended unless a license therefore has been granted by the Board, acting with the advice of the Planning Board. No such license shall be granted except in conformance with applicable provisions of the Massachusetts General Laws and the Town’s Zoning By-Law.
10.3.2
No mobile home , trailer, or like structure shall be used for living quarters anywhere in the Town of Plainville except on those locations licensed therefore, unless in case of an emergency or disaster if it is so proclaimed by the Board of Selectmen. Such temporary permits shall be administered by the Board.
10.4 BASIC REGULATIONS
10.4.1
No mobile home park shall be less than five (5) acres in area, exclusive of park streets and the area provided for recreation, service, and other permanent buildings.
10.4.2
There shall be no more than eight (8) mobile home lots laid out on each acre, exclusive of part streets and the area provided for recreation, service, and other permanent buildings.
10.4.3
There shall be provided central facilities for recreation and services such as laundry, which shall be available to all mobile home park residents.
10.4.4
At least one (1) off-street parking space, substantially equivalent to a ten (10) foot by twenty (20) foot rectangle, shall be provided for each mobile home lot.
10.4.5
The occupied area of a mobile home lot shall not exceed 50% of the lot area.
10.4.6
No mobile home shall be located closer than fifteen (15) feet to the nearest mobile home lot line or park street, and no mobile home accessory building shall be located closer than ten (10) feet to such a lot line or park street, except as specifically authorized by the Board with the advice of the Planning Board, in a cluster or other arrangement deemed to be suited to the terrain or other considerations. Each mobile home shall be located with at least a thirty (30) foot set back from any abutting public street or highway.
10.4.7
The street system shall conform to construction standards set forth in the Rules and Regulations of the Planning Board for the construction and paving of streets in subdivisions in the Town and shall have direct connection to a public street or highway sufficient to satisfy the safety requirements of the Superintendent of Highways and the Fire Chief.
Access streets connecting park streets to public streets or highways shall have a layout on no less than forty (40) feet in width and shall be acceptable to the Superintendent of Highways as to grading, contour, and surface.
Park streets shall have layout of no less than thirty (30) feet in width and have a turnaround with a radius of no less than thirty (30) feet at any terminus. All park streets shall be lighted, named, and marked. All lots on each street shall be marked with a number. The maintenance of park and access streets shall be the responsibility of the mobile home park owner or operator.
10.4.8
Each mobile home lot within a mobile home park shall have a frontage of at least fifty (50) feet on a park street..
10.4.9
No mobile home lot shall be located within one hundred (100) feet of any stream, pond, lake, or other waterway except where public sewage facilities are available and utilized, and the location will not present a potential flood hazard.
10.4.10
No license shall be granted for establishing or developing a mobile home park unless a connection is made to a municipal water supply system and all units within the park are connected to it. A private water system for use in a central laundry or other similar use may be permitted at the discretion of the Board.
10.4.11
Where a public sewage system is available at or within the boundary of the park site, connection shall be made to such system to serve all mobile homes and permanent buildings within the park.
10.4.12
Mobile homes shall not be stored or displayed on park premises except when mounted on a pad on a lot. New mobile homes displayed for sale by the park owner or operator must be sold for use within the park in which they are displayed.
Used mobile homes offered for sale by individual mobile home owners must be displayed on a pad on a lot within the park but may be sold either for use within the park to an individual or to the park owner or operator, or for use outside the park. The park owner or operator may also display used mobile homes on a pad on a lot for resale within the park premises.
Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed as permitting the storage of unoccupied mobile homes in any park for sale in the ordinary course of business, or as inventory, or as permitting the actual sale of such homes in any park except in those districts, as determined by the Zoning By-Law, wherein such commercial activity is permissible with or without permits from the proper authority.
10.4.13
The developer shall provide for a buffer zone of at least thirty (30) feet with appropriate vegetation between the mobile home park and any adjacent property and shall establish a similar thirty (30) foot buffer when such mobile home park shall be adjacent to any highway or road.
10.5 APPLICATION FOR LICENSE FOR MOBILE HOME PARK
Application for a license to establish a mobile home park or to alter, modify, or extend an existing mobile home park shall be made in writing to the Board. Upon receipt of such application the Board shall forward a copy thereof to the Planning Board for its recommendation. Within thirty (30) days of its receipt of the application, the Board shall hold a public hearing on the application.
The Board shall, with the advice of the Planning Board, act on the application and notify the applicant of its decision within sixty (60) days of such hearing. Each application shall include the following:
- The name and address of the applicant and the nature of his interest in the property involved.
- The name and precise location of the proposed mobile home park or of the existing park to which an alteration, modification, or extension is proposed.
- A detailed plan of the proposed mobile home park or of the proposed alteration, modification, or extension of an existing park, prepared by a registered engineer or land surveyor to a scale of eight (80) feet to the inch showing:
- All mobile home lots, park streets, water and sewer systems, and proposed sites for individual sewerage disposal facilities if their use is intended.
- Required buffer zones, open space, playgrounds, and parking areas.
- Water courses and other bodies of water, natural or artificial.
- Existing large trees or other natural features.
- The contour of the land involved drawn of a scale of five (5) foot intervals to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey datum.
- All abutting land, with names of owners.
- A separate key sketch, at a scale of one (1) inch equals two thousand (2,000) feet, showing the relation of the surrounding road networks. North point of the plan and the key sketch shall be in the same direction.
- In the case of land bordering on or including permanent flowing or standing waters, or where the high ground elevation is within six (6) feet of the existing or proposed ground surface level, the Board may require the plan to show existing and proposed contours on a scale of two (2) foot intervals.
- In case of an application for a license for a proposed mobile home park, an itemized estimate of the cost of equipping the park with the buildings, structures, fixtures, and facilities necessary to conduct a mobile home park shall be included with the application.
- A site report containing the following information:
- Location of the nearest public water system, the size of the water main serving the area, the location of existing fire hydrants along any public roads adjacent to the development, and the location of proposed fire hydrants within the mobile home park.
- The type of sewage disposal system to be provided or intended to be used in the mobile home park, such as an individual system on each lot, a community system or a municipal system. The report shall also specify the location of the nearest municipal sewage system and whether it is available and feasible for use. If a sewage disposal system other than a community of municipal system or individual lot septic tank and leaching field is proposed, the application shall include engineering evidence of satisfactory performance as may be required by the Board.
- Statement of the existing use of adjacent properties and intended use of adjacent properties and intended use of adjacent undeveloped lands if known.
- Certified report of a registered engineer indicating the highest known surface water elevations on the mobile home park site in the last ten (10) years and, if required by the Board, on adjacent properties.
- Statement of proposed surface drainage system, including storm drainage flow direction of the mobile home park and adjacent properties and evidence that existing drainage systems, natural or man-made, are of sufficient size to contain the maximum run-off from the site without flooding or erosion.
- Such additional information as the Board may request after initial review of the application.
10.6 APPROVAL OR DENIAL OF APPLICATION
The Board may grant a license to an applicant subject to such conditions, consistent with these rules and regulations and applicable provisions of the Massachusetts General Laws, as it desires to impose. The Board shall notify the applicant, in writing, within sixty (60) days of the public hearing conducted on the application, of its decision to grant or deny the license.
If its decision is to deny the license, the Board shall include in its decision the reasons for such denial. Any license granted shall expire on December 31, in the year of issue but may be renewed annually upon application without such notice and hearing.
10.7 REVOCATION OF LICENSE
The board may suspend or revoke any license granted for a mobile home park if the license violates or fails to comply with any conditions, limitations, or restrictions in the license, or violates or fails to comply with these rules and regulations or the applicable provisions of the Massachusetts General Laws.
10.8 CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS
10.8.1 MOBILE HOME PAD
The pad shall be constructed from concrete or asphalt concrete sufficient to adequately support the mobile home and prevent abnormal settling or heaving under the weight of the home. The mobile home shall be anchored to prevent wind overturn and rocking by using tie-downs such as concrete “dead men”, screw augers, arrowhead anchors, or other suitable devices capable of withstanding a tension of at least four thousand eight hundred (4,800) pounds. The mobile home shall be boxed in.
10.8.2 WATER, SEWER, AND ELECTRICAL LINES
A plan an profile showing water, sewer, and electrical lines shall be submitted to the Superintendent of Highways for approval. Utility lines shall not be laid in the same trench, and there shall be a minimum horizontal distance of ten (10) feet between them. Water/sewer crosses shall be kept to a minimum where crosses are necessary. Every effort shall be made to have the water lines pass above the sewer lines where adequate depths for cover are practical to obtain.
Acceptable sewer pipe material s are cement, asbestos, and rigid plastic such as PVC and ABS. The water and sewer riser pipes shall form watertight seals and, when not connected to a mobile home, shall be tightly and securely plugged.
Water and sewer riser pipes shall extend at least six (6) inches above the mobile home pad. The water supply riser pipe shall have at least 3/5″ inside diameter. A shut-off valve below the frost line shall serve each mobile home.
Underground stop and waste valves shall be installed on any water service.
10.8.3 ELECTRICAL
Electric power lines shall be either underground or strung from poles in a manner acceptable to the servicing electric power company. Wires shall not be strewn about on the ground surface or strung from home to home. All connections shall be installed in accordance with the Massachusetts State Electrical Code.
10.8.4 REFUSE, TRASH, AND GARBAGE
Refuse, trash, and garbage shall not be permitted to accumulate in a manner that creates a potential or real health hazard. It shall be the responsibility of the park owner to insure that refuse does not accumulate for longer than a week, and that it is kept covered in barrels or metal containers out of reach of children or wild animals.
10.9 WATER POLLUTION CONTROL REQUIREMENTS
Where an existing public sewer is to be utilized, the applicant shall present such evidence as will show that such utilization is acceptable to the Superintendent of Highways.
10.9.2
When a sewage system is proposed which involves a discharge to the waters under the control of the Commonwealth, the applicant shall present such evidence as will show that the waste treatment system is approved by the appropriate department of the Commonwealth. Notwithstanding such approval, the Board may, based on special local conditions, impose additional restrictions upon the installation of such a system.
10.10 EFFECTIVE DATE
These rules and regulations shall take effect on the date of their adoption by the Board. On such date of adoption, all rules and regulations previously adopted by the Board which are in conflict with the rules and regulations shall be replaced.