I am buying a park in Colorado that has residential zoning despite being an MHP for 40+ years. There are vacant lots that I would like to infill but the zoning will not allow for that. Is there a way around this? How easy is it to get rezoned back to an MHP?
I had this problem and forced the seller to do this while I was under contract. He had to hire a local real estate lawyer to handle it. It took a few months extra but it is better than having an illegal park. Mine was built prior to zoning the city so it was straight forward.
My understanding is that new zoning reflects whatever the city currently wants for that area — in your case, residential. However, since you’re an MHP, if that’s how the property was zoned in the past, you’re allowed to keep that usage under what’s often called “grandfathered” or more precisely legal non-conforming. If you shut down, though, the next owner would be required to convert to residential.
As legal non-conforming, you retain the zoning that was in place when the park was built. That means you can infill. There’s substantial case law on this — including multiple Supreme Court cases — but it’s ultimately a zoning issue that an experienced attorney in your state should be able to resolve, even if the resolution comes at a cost. I’d start by calling your state’s manufactured housing association, explaining the problem, and asking them to refer you to an attorney who handles this.
We faced the exact same issue in Indiana. The city refused to issue a new placement permit. We hired an attorney, had one very expensive meeting, and they agreed to start releasing permits again.
You can try to go back to MHP, but there is no point and it may be an exercise in futility. In our case, we were zoned from mobile home park to business park. That zoning change took place about 20 years ago because the city planned for us to become a business park. The only thing holding them back is that we are a solid, operating, and profitable mobile home park, and they cannot steal that usage from us.