Manufactured housing is an important component in North Carolina’s overall housing market. Despite the importance and widespread use of manufactured housing, there has been some degree of citizen antipathy toward mobile homes. Therefore, state and federal law limit local regulation of manufactured housing.
Manufactured Housing, Modular Housing, and Zoning
David W. Owens
Professor of Public Law and Government
School of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
© 2023
March 2023
Manufactured Homes
Manufactured housing is an important component in North Carolina’s overall housing market and a critical component of the affordable-housing market. Mobile homes account for approximately 13 percent of the state’s housing stock, about double the national share of the housing stock.[1] Despite the importance and widespread use of manufactured housing, there has been some degree of citizen antipathy toward mobile homes.[2]
Many local governments in North Carolina have long included special restrictions on manufactured housing in their development regulations.[3] By 1960, a familiar land use regulatory approach for manufactured housing had emerged: manufactured-home-park standards, floating zoning districts for manufactured-housing parks, special use permits for manufactured-home placement, and standards on buffers and other aspects of the design of manufactured-home parks.[4]
G.S. 160D-910, adopted in 1987, directs local governments to consider allocating more land to manufactured-housing sites as a way of providing additional affordable housing in the state. This statute allows local governments to regulate the location, appearance, and dimensions of manufactured housing but prohibits the total exclusion of manufactured housing from a jurisdiction.[5] These restrictions are generally applied to units constructed in a factory and built to the uniform national standards for manufactured homes promulgated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.[6] Federal law preempts local construction and safety standards for manufactured housing.
Many zoning ordinances establish subcategories of manufactured housing and apply differential standards to each (e.g., Class A manufactured homes are allowed in some districts, Class B in other districts).[7] Any such distinction must have a rational basis. Typical distinctions that are used are those based on the size of the units[8] or the construction standards in effect at the time of manufacture.[9]
Cities and counties may not employ factors other than appearance, dimension, and location in land use regulation of manufactured housing.
Restrictions based solely on the age of the unit are not permissible in North Carolina.[10] In Five C’s, Inc. v. County of Pasquotank, the court invalidated an age standard used as the basis for regulation of manufactured homes. The county had adopted an ordinance under its general police power to prohibit bringing manufactured homes into the county that were more than ten years old at the time of setup. The rationale offered by the county was protection of the county tax base, noting that manufactured homes rapidly decline in value and at the ten-year point have little more value than a motor vehicle, providing insufficient tax revenue to support the need for county services generated. The court held that G.S. 160D-910 limits regulation of manufactured housing to appearance and dimensional criteria and thus prohibits regulation based solely on the age or value of the unit.[11] G.S. 160D-910 was amended in 2019 to codify this restriction on exclusion of manufactured homes based on the age of the home.[12] A local government may, however, likely address age indirectly by requiring that manufactured homes be built to set federal standards in order to be permissible.[13] It is also common for local governments to have detailed standards for mobile-home parks, such as standards for road width and paving, minimum lot sizes, and provisions for waste disposal. These are sometimes incorporated into a zoning ordinance and sometimes adopted as a separate ordinance.[14]
Typical zoning requirements that have been adopted in North Carolina include limiting manufactured housing to specified zoning districts[15] or to manufactured-home parks[16] (which often can be located only in special overlay zoning districts).[17] Other regulations only allow units of at least a certain size to be located in specified districts.[18]
It is also common for regulations to include special provisions regarding replacement and repair of nonconforming manufactured-housing units.[19] Care is necessary in drafting the precise terms of such limitations. In a case involving the Town of Cramerton’s zoning regulations, In re Hensley, the court ruled that where the regulation provided that a nonconforming use could not be reestablished after it had been discontinued for 180 days, a nonconforming use could be reestablished if done in less than that time. In this instance, a mobile home had been removed from a lot in a zone that did not allow mobile homes; however, the petitioner was entitled to a permit to replace the mobile home if that were done within 180 days.[20] By contrast, the court in Williams v. Town of Spencer upheld a regulation provision explicitly prohibiting replacement of units on vacated lots in a nonconforming manufactured-home park.[21]
Many regulations include appearance standards to integrate the units aesthetically into surrounding neighborhoods with site-built homes. These standards typically include requiring a pitched roof, requiring either skirting around the underside of the unit or location on a permanent foundation,[22] and orienting the unit to the front of the lot. Such appearance standards were upheld in CMH Manufacturing, Inc. v. Catawba County. The county required lap siding, minimum roof pitch, and shingled roofs for single-wide manufactured homes. Other county requirements that were not challenged included installation of a deck or porch, removal or screening of travel hitches, orientation on the lot, and brick underpinning or skirting for double-wide units. The court held that these were permissible “appearance” standards rather than “construction and safety” standards that are preempted by federal law.[23]
Regulations on manufactured housing may not be based on the ownership of the unit, for example, allowing owner-occupied but not rental manufactured housing.[24] Nor may zoning restrictions be based on the “type of people” presumed to be residing therein.[25] Only legitimate land use–related factors may be considered in framing such regulations.
Modular Homes
Most zoning ordinances do not apply the requirements for manufactured housing to factory-built housing that is built to State Building Code standards.[26] The latter units are referred to as “modular” rather than “manufactured” homes. Modular units[27] are often, but not always, treated as the equivalent of site-built homes for zoning purposes.
State law does, however, set minimum design standards for modular units. G.S. 143-139.1 requires modular units to meet these standards:
- The pitch of the roof must be no less than five feet of rise for every twelve feet of run for homes with a single, predominant roofline.
- The eave projections of the roof must not be less than ten inches (excluding roof gutters) unless the roof pitch is 8:12 or greater.
- The minimum height of the first-story exterior wall must be at least seven feet, six inches.
- The materials and texture of exterior materials must be compatible in composition, appearance, and durability to the exterior materials commonly used in standard residential construction.
- The modular home must be designed to require foundation supports around the perimeter.
Travel trailers and recreational vehicles (RVs) are also regulated differently than manufactured homes. They are not built to either state building code standards or federal manufactured home construction standards, but mobile vehicles or structures that can be occupied. These may not be used as a permanent dwelling unit under the state Building Code.[28] Most zoning regulations have limit the location of RV parks, have standards for the parks, and prohibit extended use for occupancy outside of those permitted locations. Many zoning regulations, however, make exceptions for temporary residential use of these structures after natural disasters.
Private Restrictive Covenants
There has also been considerable litigation in the state regarding the interpretation of private-restrictive-covenant provisions related to manufactured housing.[29] However, these covenants are private agreements between the property owners involved. The interpretation, administration, and enforcement of these covenants do not affect government regulations.
[1]. Am. Cmty. Survey, Physical Housing Characteristics for Occupied Housing Units: 2011–2015 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Census.gov (2015). In some North Carolina counties, mobile homes are nearly a third of the housing stock. In 2010, the census reported 604,286 mobile homes and a total of 4,327,528 homes (14 percent). The comparable figure in 1970 was 98,474 mobile homes and an overall total of 1,641,222 (6 percent). Estimates were that 6.5 percent of the national housing stock were manufactured units in 2011. U.S. Bureau of the Census, American Housing Survey for the United States: 2011, at 3–4 (2013).
[2]. Noting that there had been some improvement in attitudes toward mobile homes in the previous decade, one author reported in 1971 that, according to a national survey of planning officials, 82 percent of planning officials had a favorable view of mobile homes as housing, compared to 64 percent for planning boards, 54 percent for elected boards, and only 20 percent for the public at large. The same national survey reported that 28 percent of surveyed jurisdictions prohibited mobile-home parks, while another 13 percent limited them to industrial areas. Frederick H. Bair, Mobile Homes Are Here to Stay, Popular Gov’t, Apr. 1971, at 20, 22.
[3]. See, e.g., City of Raleigh v. Morand, 247 N.C. 363, 100 S.E.2d 870 (1957), appeal dismissed, 357 U.S. 343 (1958) (upholding ordinance prohibiting trailer parks within residential districts in the city’s one-mile extraterritorial area). One of the earlier North Carolina ordinances on the subject was adopted when mobile homes were in fact mobile. The City of Durham amended its zoning ordinance in 1949 to “put an end to the indiscriminate parking of the portable dwellings within the city limits,” requiring all habitable mobile units to be located in trailer parks. Trailer Camps, Popular Gov’t, Dec. 1949, at 4.
[4]. Philip P. Green, Jr., Regulating Mobile Homes Through Zoning, Popular Gov’t, Mar. 1961, at 10.
[5]. The prohibition on a total ban of manufactured housing codifies the rule set out in Town of Conover v. Jolly, 277 N.C. 439, 177 S.E.2d 879 (1970), the court invalidated an ordinance that completely barred mobile homes for residential use within the town. The court ruled that the mobile-home ordinance, which was not part of the zoning ordinance, was beyond the town’s delegated police powers, for mobile homes were neither a nuisance per se nor a detriment per se to public health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience, or welfare.
[6]. National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5401–5426. Federal construction and safety standards preempt the construction and safety-standard authority of states and local governments. 42 U.S.C. § 5403(d). The federal construction standards, generally referred to as the HUD Code, are at 42 C.F.R. § 3280.1.
[7]. See N.C. League of Municipalities et al., Manufactured Housing: Zoning Alternatives to Address North Carolina Housing Needs (1988) for an example of such classification.
[8]. For example, many ordinances have more restrictive locational standards for single-wide units than for double-wide units.
[9]. The most commonly used distinction is to have more restrictive requirements for those units constructed before the imposition of federal minimum construction standards that became effective on June 15, 1976. Housing and Urban Development standards for wind load were substantially updated after Hurricane Andrew, with an effective date of July 13, 1994.
[10]. White v. Union County, 93 N.C. App. 148, 377 S.E.2d 93 (1989), addressed age limits for manufactured housing. The court reviewed an ordinance that limited the use of mobile homes as residences to those built after 1976 (when federal construction standards became applicable) or valued at more than $5000. The court expressed doubt about the county’s statutory authority for the monetary-value requirement.
[11]. 195 N.C. App. 410, 672 S.E.2d 737 (2009).
[12]. While a restriction based on the age of the unit per se is impermissible, a local government can require that the unit be built to a particular federal standard, such as the original enactment of federal construction standards or a substantial modification of those standards. Local governments often also adopt housing codes that regulate the habitability and condition of manufactured homes used as residences. These codes apply regardless of the age of the unit.
[13]. A requirement that units have a HUD manufactured-housing approval, available only after 1976, is a common regulatory requirement. Some local governments require the unit to be built to the latest update of the HUD manufactured-home-building standard, particularly in areas subject to hurricanes where the wind-load standard is important. For example, the basic federal rule setting structural design standards for manufactured homes, 24 C.F.R. § 3280.305, has been updated multiple times since its original 1975 adoption. 44 FR 66195, Nov. 19, 1979; 52 FR 4582, Feb. 12, 1987; 58 FR 55006, Oct. 25, 1993; 59 FR 2469, Jan. 14, 1994; 59 FR 15113, 15114, Mar. 31, 1994; 62 FR 54547, Oct. 20, 1997; 70 FR 72043, Nov. 30, 2005; 71 FR 19638, Apr. 17, 2006; 78 FR 73983, Dec. 9, 2013; 80 FR 53727, Sept. 8, 2015; 86 FR 2520, Jan. 12, 2021; 86 FR 10457, Feb. 22, 2021.
[14]. A 2005 survey by the School of Government indicated that 79 percent of the responding municipalities and 93 percent of the responding counties had adopted regulations on manufactured-home parks.
[15]. Koontz v. Davidson Cnty. Bd. of Adjustment, 130 N.C. App. 479, 503 S.E.2d 108, review denied, 349 N.C. 529, 526 S.E.2d 177 (1998) (upholding zoning amendment that removed manufactured housing as a permitted use in a particular zoning district); City of Asheboro v. Auman, 26 N.C. App. 87, 214 S.E.2d 621, cert. denied, 288 N.C. 239, 217 S.E.2d 663 (1975) (upholding injunction to prohibit continued use of a mobile home that had been moved into a zoning district that did not allow mobile homes, even though the wheels and tongue had been removed and the unit had been placed on a permanent foundation); Town of Mount Olive v. Price, 20 N.C. App. 302, 201 S.E.2d 362 (1973) (upholding injunction compelling removal of a mobile home located in violation of the zoning ordinance).
[16]. Cnty. of Currituck v. Upton, 19 N.C. App. 45, 197 S.E.2d 883 (1973) (upholding an order to remove a mobile home from a zoning district that did not permit individual units outside a park); State v. Martin, 7 N.C. App. 18, 171 S.E.2d 115 (1969) (upholding conviction for violation of an Ahoskie ordinance limiting the location of mobile homes to mobile-home parks). See also Tex. Manufactured Hous. Ass’n v. City of Nederland, 101 F.3d 1095 (5th Cir. 1996), cert. denied, 521 U.S. 1112 (1997) (upholding prohibition of “trailer coaches” that meet Housing and Urban Development standards from locations outside of approved parks).
[17]. The creation of a zoning district to allow location of manufactured-home parks can be challenged as unlawful spot zoning. See Alderman v. Chatham Cnty., 89 N.C. App. 610, 366 S.E.2d 885, review denied, 323 N.C. 171, 373 S.E.2d 103 (1988); Stutts v. Swaim, 30 N.C. App. 611, 228 S.E.2d 750, review denied, 291 N.C. 178, 229 S.E.2d 692 (1976).
[18]. Currituck Cnty. v. Willey, 46 N.C. App. 835, 266 S.E.2d 52, review denied, 301 N.C. 234, 283 S.E.2d 131 (1980). In this case the court upheld a provision prohibiting mobile homes with dimensions of less than 24' × 60' in a single-family zoning district. The court ruled that mobile homes were sufficiently different from other types of housing that a rational basis existed for differing requirements, such as this dimension standard.
[19]. See, e.g., Forsyth Cnty. v. York, 19 N.C. App. 361, 198 S.E.2d 770, cert. denied, 284 N.C. 253, 200 S.E.2d 653 (1973) (upholding requirement that changes in nonconforming use and mobile-home use in certain districts be authorized by special use permits).
[20]. 98 N.C. App. 408, 390 S.E.2d 727 (1990).
[21]. 129 N.C. App. 828, 500 S.E.2d 473 (1998).
[22]. G.S. 160D-910(g), added to the statute in 2021, provides that the regulation cannot require a masonry curtain wall or masonry skirting for manufactured homes on land leased to the homeowner.
[23]. 994 F. Supp. 697 (W.D.N.C. 1998). The court further held that the challenged standards did not violate the commerce, due-process, or equal-protection clauses. See also Ga. Manufactured Hous. Ass’n v. Spalding Cnty., 148 F.3d 1304 (11th Cir. 1998) (holding roof-pitch requirement for manufactured housing a permissible aesthetic regulation rather than a preempted construction standard); King v. City of Bainbridge, 276 Ga. 484, 577 S.E.2d 772 (2003) (ordinance restricting location of manufactured housing not preempted); Bibco Corp. v. City of Sumter, 332 S.C. 45, 504 S.E.2d 112 (1998) (locational restricting of manufactured housing not preempted).
[24]. Graham Court Assocs. v. Town Council of Chapel Hill, 53 N.C. App. 543, 281 S.E.2d 418 (1981).
[25]. Gregory v. Cnty. of Harnett, 128 N.C. App. 161, 493 S.E.2d 786 (1997).
[26]. Duggins v. Town of Walnut Cove, 63 N.C. App. 684, 306 S.E.2d 186, review denied, 309 N.C. 819, 310 S.E.2d 348 (1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 946 (1984). The ordinance prohibited a “mobile home” in a residential zoning district but allowed “modular” and site-built homes of similar dimensions to be used. The court upheld the ordinance as validly regulating the location of various types of structures, ruling that given the presumption of validity, the city had only to establish that the ordinance was rationally related to any legitimate government objective. The protection of property values was such a legitimate objective, and the council could determine that the method of construction affected the price of homes.
[27]. G.S. 160D-911. G.S. 105-164.3 provides that a modular unit is a “factory-built structure that is designed to be used as a dwelling, is manufactured in accordance with the specifications for modular homes under the North Carolina State Residential Building Code, and bears a seal or label issued by the Department of Insurance pursuant to G.S. 143-139.1.”
[28] Michael J. Hamm, Recreational Park Trailers (Park Models)/Permanent Dwellings (Office of State Fire Marshal, Jan. 15, 2019). For building code purposes, these “recreational park trailers” are defined as manufactured vehicles not larger than 400 square feet that are self-propelled or towable and designed for temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, travel, or seasonal use.
[29]. In Young v. Lomax, 122 N.C. App. 385, 470 S.E.2d 80 (1996), there were covenants prohibiting “mobile homes.” The structure involved had two sections, each with a steel chassis, axles, and wheels. The axles and wheels were removed upon installation and the units were secured to concrete piers. The court held that the unit remained a mobile home as a matter of law and was distinguishable from the modular units addressed earlier in Angel v. Truitt, 108 N.C. App. 679, 424 S.E.2d 660 (1993), wherein the court held that placement of a modular home on a lot did not violate a restrictive covenant prohibiting mobile homes. In Forest Oaks Homeowners Ass’n v. Isenhour, a restrictive covenant prohibited trailers and “mobile homes” but permitted “modular or component homes or pre-built homes” if erected on a permanent foundation. 102 N.C. App. 322, 323, 410 S.E.2d 860, 861 (1991). The court applied the manufactured/modular distinction used in the State Building Code to allow a modular home to be placed on the plaintiff’s lot. In Starr v. Thompson, the restrictive covenant at issue prohibited the use of “trailers or mobile homes.” 96 N.C. App. 369, 370, 385 S.E.2d 535, 536 (1989). The court held that the restriction applied to a factory-built modular home. The court distinguished the definitions that were applicable for zoning from those to be used in enforcing private restrictive covenants. Starr, 96 N.C. App. 369, 385 S.E.2d 535. In Barber v. Dixon, a restrictive covenant prohibited the use of a “structure of a temporary character (including house trailers).” 62 N.C. App. 455, 302 S.E.2d 915,review denied, 309 N.C. 191, 305 S.E.2d 732 (1983). The court held that this prohibited the use of a structure consisting of two units transported to the site, even though the wheels, tongues, and axles had been removed two days after the units had been located on the lot. Barber, 62 N.C. App. 455, 302 S.E.2d 915. In Van Poole v. Messer, a restrictive covenant prohibited temporary structures and trailers. The court held that “trailer” included a mobile home. 19 N.C. App. 70, 198 S.E.2d 106 (1973). The restrictive covenant in Strickland v. Overman, 11 N.C. App. 427, 181 S.E.2d 136 (1971), prohibited trailers and temporary structures, categories that the court held to include a “prefabricated modular unit.”
