Friday, November 6, 2009

The last of their kind

City won’t allow replacement of trailers on River Street

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By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

These trailer homes on River Street in Hailey will likely disappear one by one. Under new codes, they could not be replaced. Photo by David N. Seelig

It's just a matter of time before a row of old trailer homes on River Street in Hailey go the way of the tar-paper shack. City officials are content to wait for them to disappear, one by one, but won't allow them to be replaced in their current form.

"I have to admit it's funky there," property owner Kevin Wallace told the City Council last month while seeking a variance to city codes that keep him from replacing one of the trailer homes that he removed from the property. "I didn't know at the time I could not replace it."

Wallace's trailer homes, some of which have porches and stairs attached and have not seen the open road in a long while, are considered an "existing, non-conforming use," meaning their days are numbered.

Building official Dave Ferguson said in an interview that current city and state codes require that Wallace replace the mobile home with, at the very least, a manufactured home on a foundation.

"In the past, people built ramadas, or rooftops, over some of them to handle the snow load," he said. "But as it is today, you could not replace one of them with what was there."

Ferguson said state law requires that manufactured homes also have garages.

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"The state has more restrictive codes than Hailey does," he said.

Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com