City to Seek Man Camp Moratorium Extension

As the oil boom explodes around neighboring cities and rent prices in San Angelo begin to soar, the demand for mobile home and RV parks is on the rise. In order to combat the wild cropping up of man camps citywide, the City enacted a 90-day man camp moratorium in November of last year, which allowed them time to hash out City ordinances governing the construction of temporary living parks.

A.J. Fawver, Interim Director of Development Services, presented an update to City Council on Tuesday on the progress made thus far on ordinances, and noted the need for the extension. “In order to have the final ordinances enacted by the end of the moratorium period, those would have had to be introduced by the beginning of the year,” Fawver said. “The committee has had some substantial progress…I would venture to say that we are probably 90 percent of the way complete for these ordinances.”

Fawver said that in the past, RV and mobile home parks were mostly used as holiday spots, but that growth over the past few years has seen an increase in demand for the locations as temporary living establishments. The City’s objective in implementing the moratorium, Fawver said, was to set up comprehensive regulations for controlled growth.

“We have some things in the ordinance that address those (mobile home and RV park standards), but not very completely, which is part of the reason for the moratorium,” she said. “So we’re kind of updating them and then we’re looking at potentially adding some new sections that would address putting existing parts and any new parts that would come in under the same set of guidelines, because that’s one of the problems right now…they were all authorized under different ordinances, and we have some that we can’t even find evidence of ever having been approved.”

Another motive, Fawver admits, is for some to ensure that San Angelo doesn’t take after neighbors such as Midland/Odessa, with widespread mobile home parks littered on every vacant lot.

“I think every person you could ask would give you a different response to that, but I think a lot of it is we want to plan ahead so that we don’t have uncontrolled growth. That’s probably one of the most common things that I’ve heard from everyone that’s involved in this.”

Fawver also noted an emphasis on communication between the City and mobile home park owners in order to ensure that channels remain open in case of regulatory violations.

“We have to tie it to public health, safety, welfare, but mainly in this instance…right now it’s mainly…making sure that each park owner is responsible for the conduct of the park, the way the park operates, the way it fits into the area—kind of managing those operations so that we have one person in case violations or issues, there’s a point of contact,” she said.

The moratorium was unanimously approved at the Nov. 19, 2013 City Council meeting. Fawver intends to request a 90-day extension on the moratorium at the Feb. 18 Council meeting.

“We don’t feel that we’ll need the entire 90-day period, but it does give you some cushion, if you will, for any discussion that you might have based on the products that are brought to you, as well as to the planning commission,” Fawver said.

The Planning Commission and City staffers working on the ordinances will bring their recommendations to Council in March, however Council will be provided information in advance in order to discuss and prepare questions on the proposed ordinances.

Under the moratorium, the following actions are suspended: all applications for campgrounds or RV usage; no action can be taken for zone changes to manufactured housing parks (MHP); no action can be taken on site plans for campgrounds RV parks; and no action can be taken on applications for expansion of capacity for existing parks and campgrounds.