In addition to the statement of purposes set forth in Article
I, §
145-4, of this chapter, it is hereby declared to be the specific intent of this article with respect to the MHP Mobile Home Park District to establish standards of performance and promote the desirable benefits which planned mobile home parks may have upon the community, and the residents within them. It is further the intent of this article to ensure the interdependency and compatibility of proposed mobile home parks with essential utilities and surrounding land uses in the Township. It shall further be the intent of this district:
A. To reflect the changes in the technology of home building
and land development so that resulting economies may accrue to the
benefits of those who need homes;
B. To further the general welfare by extending greater
opportunities for better and more affordable housing to present and
prospective residents of Lower Frederick Township;
C. To provide for better quality and greater variety
in type, design, and layout of mobile home parks than has been evident
in many mobile home parks in the past by enforcing uniform standards,
desirable design criteria, and encouraging innovative site design
approaches;
D. To provide for a diversity in housing types and prices;
and
E. To encourage mobile home parks that are beneficial
rather than detrimental to property values and the general welfare
of the area in which they are proposed.
The uses allowed within a mobile home development shall be as specified in Chapter
170, Zoning.
The following regulations shall apply to mobile
home parks or developments:
A. Arrangement of structure and facilities. The tract,
including mobile home stands, patios, other dwellings and structures,
and all tract improvements, shall be organized in relation to topography,
the shape of the plot, and common facilities. Special attention shall
be given to new mobile home designs and to common appurtenances that
are available.
B. Adaptation to tract assets. Each mobile home unit
or other dwelling or structure shall be fitted to the terrain with
a minimum disturbance of the land and a minimum elevation difference
between the floor level of the unit and the ground elevation under
it. Existing trees and shrubs, rock formation, streams, floodplains,
steep slopes, and other natural features of the tract shall be preserved
to the maximum extent practical. Favorable views shall be emphasized
by the plan.
C. Courts and spaces. Groups or clusters of units, so
placed as to create interior spaces and courtyards, shall be incorporated
whenever feasible.
D. Orientation. Mobile homes are encouraged to be arranged
in a variety of orientations, and are strongly encouraged to have
many units with their long sides facing the street rather than their
ends, in order to provide variety and interest. Site layout shall
be designed to insure that mobile home units are offset to block long
uninterrupted vistas between the units.
E. Street layout. Street patterns unrelated to the topography
of the site are to be avoided.
F. Roadways.
(1) Standards. All Township standards for the construction
of streets contained in this chapter shall be adhered to for all public
streets in and abutting mobile home developments. In those developments
wherein the streets are to be maintained as private internal roadways,
owned and maintained by the mobile home park operator or owned and
maintained in common by the residents/owners of the individual lots,
the standards shall be as follows:
(a)
Right-of-way. There shall be an equivalent right-of-way
(as defined herein) reserved along those streets which are designed
to function as feeder or collector streets, and which connect major
exterior roadways, form major loops, traverse the development or provide
major or important access to adjacent parcels. No equivalent right-of-way
is required on other streets. On those streets where an equivalent
right-of-way is required, parallel parking may be permitted, but perpendicular
or angle parking is discouraged.
(b)
Pavement. Pavement width of all residential
streets serving as access to mobile home lots shall be not less than
26 feet, except that this may be reduced to not less than 20 feet
on a street serving as access to no more than 10 mobile home lots
where parking is prohibited along the road and off-street visitor
parking is provided in common areas within 300 feet of all dwelling
units at a rate of 0.3 space per mobile home.
(c)
Grades. Gradients on all residential streets
shall not exceed 10%.
(d)
Cul-de-sacs. A paved turnaround area with a
minimum radius of 40 feet shall be provided at the closed end of any
cul-de-sac road serving as a sole access to four or more mobile home
lots. No permanently closed cul-de-sac street shall exceed 500 feet
in length or serve as the only access to more than 20 mobile home
lots.
(2) Access limitations. Mobile home lots may have direct
access only onto streets internal to the development. Direct access
from a mobile home lot shall not be permitted onto the streets from
which the mobile home, park or development gains primary access.
(3) Conversions. Any road built as a private road, and
later proposed for conversion to a public road, shall be brought up
to the applicable standards for public streets prior to being ordained
as a public way, unless this requirement is waived by the governing
body subsequent to determining that compliance with the requirement
would have a negative effect on the mobile home development.
G. Pedestrian circulation.
(1) General requirements. All mobile home developments
shall provide safe, convenient, all-season pedestrian walkways of
adequate width for intended use, durable and convenient to maintain
between individual mobile homes, mobile home development, streets
all community facilities provided for the residents, and off-site
pedestrian traffic generators, such as schools, bus stops, commercial
centers, etc. These pedestrian walkways may parallel vehicular roadways,
where they shall only be required on one side, or they may form a
separate but coordinated system away from streets. Walkways must be
provided wherever pedestrian traffic is concentrated and where school
children congregate, but may be waived elsewhere if the applicant
successfully demonstrates a lack of need.
(2) Common walk system. Where a common walk system is
provided and maintained between locations, such common walks shall
have a minimum width of four feet. Where these walks parallel roadways
they shall be separated from the road pavement by a distance of at
least four feet.
(3) Individual walks. All dwellings shall be connected
to common walks, or to streets, or to driveways or parking spaces
connecting to a paved street. Such individual walks shall have a minimum
width of two feet.
H. Parking.
(1) Spaces required. Two paved off-street parking space
shall be provided for each dwelling on the same lot therewith, or
in common parking facilities, provided that parking area contained
therein are within 150 feet of the mobile home lots for which they
are intended. Parking for any commercial or other nonresidential use
shall follow the requirements otherwise applicable for such uses.
(2) Common parking areas:
(a)
Aisle width. Where common parking facilities
are to be used, no parking aisle will be less than 22 feet in width.
(b)
All parking areas shall conform to §
145-31 herein.
In addition to any requirements of Chapter
170, Zoning, the following regulations shall also apply:
A. Arrangement; recreation.
(1) Arrangement. The common space shall be designed as
a contiguous area unless the applicant demonstrates to the satisfaction
of the Board of Supervisors that two or more separate areas would
be preferable. The open space shall also have easily identifiable
pedestrian and visual accessibility to all residents of the mobile
home development, although all units do not have to abut the common
open space.
(2) Recreation. Recreation areas and facilities shall
be provided to meet the anticipated needs of the residents of the
development. Not less than 25% of the required open space area exclusive
of lands within the required buffers, shall be devoted to recreation.
Recreation areas should be of a size, shape and topography that is
conducive to active and passive recreation.
B. Buffers.
(1) General requirements. Along all exterior property
boundary lines a permanent buffer shall be provided.
(2) Existing buffers. In cases where the property line
of a mobile home development occurs along natural features which function
as buffers, including but not limited to mature vegetation, significant
grade changes or stream valleys which are likely to be permanently
preserved, buffering may be waived along that property line upon approval
of the Board of Supervisors upon recommendation of the Township Planning
Commission.
(3) Buffer landscape plan. A landscaping plan shall be
submitted with the final plans showing all pertinent information including
the location, size and species of all individual trees and shrubs
to be preserved or planted, or alternately the general characteristics
of existing vegetation masses which are to be preserved.
C. Drainage considerations. The standards and requirements contained in Article
IV, herein, shall be complied with.