legal non-conforming status

[Dan Oakley]

Hey all,  I am looking at a park that has a legal non-conforming designation.  The reason being lot size.  Minimum required is 20,000sq/ft per home as of 2001. Nearly half an acre.  The park was finished in the late nineties so the regulation are not a violation but how would you proceed?  Does it make you think differently about the overall prospects of the park or is it just something that comes with the territory of changes to   zoning and permitted uses?

[Matt Devincenzo]

As with many things...it depends. An underlying question on a legal non-conforming use is what does the code say as it relates to continuing the use in the event of 1) extended vacancy 2) destruction or loss (fire, flood etc) 3) additional changes or improvements to the site. 

1) If you fail to use it as a MHP for some time do you lose your ability to then begin again? If so how long is that timeframe, or what other conditions could also trigger that section of the code? 

2) It's fairly typical that a loss such as fire etc, could eliminate your ability to rebuild. First what threshold of loss triggers this code? Is it only a total loss, greater than 50%, or any loss cannot be rebuilt? So if you lose 1 of 10 trailers to a fire is that now a total loss forever?

3) What restrictions to improving the site are you accepting? There may be allowance in the zoning code for a MHP zoning to have an accessory structure for a club house (for example). But if your property doesn't already have one are you allowed to build one per the existing 'non-conforming' zoning? Or is that considered an intensification of the non-conforming use and prohibited by the code? 

The answers to all of the above may indicate a longer term negative pressure on the value since you may not be able to continue the use. So it's accounting for that either in the actual purchase price, or by ensuring that the new zoning use is at least equal in value to what you expect to achieve with the MHP if you were to have a loss of your non-conforming use.