Sussex board rules on complex case

In one of the most unusual special-use exception applications presented to Sussex County Board of Adjustment, the board has ruled a modular home can be placed in a manufactured home park.

Jason and Stacey Harshbarger are permitted to place their home on their lot in the Simpson Mobile Home Park, near Indian River Inlet bridge and Delaware Seashore State Park.

To those who attended a Jan. 7 meeting, it appeared the board denied the application, but when the findings of fact were published and voted on March 4, the application was approved. However, the word “denied” is posted on the application on the county's land-use docket website.

By code, no action taken by the board is official until the findings of fact are approved. That process usually takes about two months from the date of the meeting.

The findings of fact do not align with the board's Jan. 7 vote or the notice posted on the website.

“Upon motion duly made and seconded, the special-use exception application was approved. No board member voted against the motion,” the findings of fact noted.

However, the board never voted on the special-use application during the meeting. Instead, the board voted that a stick-built home in the park would not have a substantial negative impact on neighboring properties, the main factor used by the board when it rules on applications.

“That does not mean you are granting permission to do it,” said board attorney Jamie Sharp.

The ruling is contrary to county code – prohibiting stick-built homes in manufactured home parks – but is consistent with action taken by the board allowing four other stick-built homes in the small park.

The couple, who live in Pennsylvania, purchased the lot and demolished the existing manufactured home, which had been set on pilings.

No vote on special-use exception

At the January hearing, Sharp said the board had to consider two motions – first, to make a determination whether county code applied to the application, and then to use the normal special-use exception analysis whether the application would negatively impact neighboring properties.

The board never voted on the special-use exception application, although it appeared some board members supported it. Prior to any action, board member Bruce Mears, who is now a planning and zoning commission member, said he supported the application but needed guidance to make a motion.

The board then voted there was nothing written in county code that would allow for approval of the application.

Then, as suggested by Sharp, the board voted that a stick-built home in the park would not have a substantial negative impact on neighboring properties.

“You made a motion that code didn't apply so no special use can be granted,” Sharp said.

ABOUT THE APPLICATION

The complex case involved a nonconforming manufactured home park established before county zoning was enacted.

• The park is zoned MR, medium-density residential, a zone where manufactured homes are not permitted, hence the nonconformity.

• Current code allows for one stick-built home for the manager in a manufactured home park.

• Prior to the recent action, over the past 14 years, four special-use applications for stick-built homes in this park have been granted by the board of adjustment.

• The applicants were denied a building permit and the chance to file a special-use exception application by the county planning and zoning director. That denial was upheld by the board of adjustment.

• The applicants appealed the board's decision to Sussex County Superior Court where Judge E. Scott Bradley ruled a hearing should be granted because the board had not determined why four other special-use applications were granted.