Officials in Rankin County have reversed course on a new zoning ordinance that sparked public outcry.
On Monday morning, the Rankin County Board of Supervisors rescinded its vote on a recently passed regulation affecting mobile home owners. The rule, which garnered a stamp of approval in early April and went into effect in the middle of the month, was met with immediate backlash from area residents and the Mississippi Manufactured Housing Association.
The ordinance changed the status of mobile homes in agricultural and certain residential zones of Rankin County from permitted use to conditional use. For homeowners, this means that they would have to go to the Department of Community Development, which would review any planned modifications or relocation of their manufactured homes or properties before a stamp of approval would be granted.
Additionally, the regulation mandated that mobile homes must be under seven years old when placed in these zones. Owners of manufactured homes that don’t fit into that criteria contended that their property values would be diminished, severely impairing their ability to sell a home that could not be moved to a new parcel of land in the county.
Hundreds of Rankin County residents were present at a public meeting held in Brandon last week. The event served to allow manufactured homeowners to voice concerns and speak with attorneys present. Though no county supervisors were present at the function, the overwhelming dissent to the new housing ordinance did not fall on deaf ears, as evidenced by Monday’s change of heart.
