SEQUIM — Sequim City Council members extended a moratorium for any applications that could redevelop mobile/manufactured home parks in the city until options are made to help protect the homes from redevelopment.
If an application were to come into the Department of Community and Economic Development to redevelop a manufactured home park, the city of Sequim would reject and return the application and corresponding fees to the applicant, staff said.
City council members voted 6-0 on July 22 — with Mayor Brandon Janisse excused from the meeting — for the ordinance to extend the six-month moratorium through Jan. 18 unless final regulations and codes governing the preservation of existing manufactured home parks have been adopted before the deadline.
A city staff report states that they asked to extend the moratorium as “staffing transitions within the Community and Economic Development Department require additional time to ensure the project scope, work plan, and timeline to finalize the Planning Commission required recommendation.”
Lindsey Sehmel, Sequim’s Community and Economic Development director, has continued to work with the city planning commission on options to propose to the council a citywide rezone and addition of a manufactured home park overlay to provide zoning protection for current and future manufactured home parks.
The planning commission will host a public hearing in a hybrid meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Sequim Civic Center, 152 W. Cedar St., before finalizing its recommendation on Aug. 20 for the city council.
Sehmel said a State Environmental Policy Act threshold determination public process must be completed before the council can consider action on the final ordinance.
Council members directed staff in June 2023 to investigate a manufactured home overlay to protect residents from potentially losing their homes to a redevelopment project. An emergency moratorium was approved that August and extended on Feb. 12. The extension was set to expire this month.
Sequim previously had a mobile home/manufactured home parks zone prior to a 2015 Comprehensive Plan update, but the parks now sit in four zoning districts.
Residents continue to ask for city action in favor of the moratorium, overlay and rezoning to preserve their homes as they fear parks being sold and their homes removed and redeveloped with limited options on a fixed income.
Doug Wright, a manufactured home resident, commended city staff and officials on July 22 for their efforts, saying they’ve listened and had thoughtful consideration through the process.
“These people need this,” Wright said. “There are things going on in this town you don’t even know about that could be affected in a positive manner.”
Sequim hosts 13 manufactured home/mobile home parks, with 596 existing units and 786 approved dwelling units.
________
Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
