A revised Warren County zoning ordinance will go to Warren County Fiscal Court and the countys incorporated cities for approval despite objections from sellers of manufactured homes and reservations by some City-County Planning Commission members. The commission voted 10-2 in favor of recommending the ordinance to the other bodies for passage at Thursday nights meeting. The proposed ordinance limits older mobile homes to placement only in established mobile home parks or on lots zoned for agricultural use, which the ordinance requires to be 10 acres or more, Commission Executive Director Andy Gillies said. However, those restrictions may place unnecessary burdens on families who cant afford a more expensive home, said Commissioner Edward A. Furlong. What about the people who are young and cant afford a 1990-model trailer or 10 acres? Do you want to make them homeless? Furlong asked. I dont think its our place to tell people what kind of mobile home they have to buy. Young married couples with limited incomes often choose mobile homes as an alternative to renting since they can build up equity in the home, said Sarah Harrell of Bonanza Homes in Bowling Green. We have some couples out there, theyre not making more than $300 a week, Harrell said. Id rather see them go into a home of their own instead of ending up in apartments or government housing. The restriction on placement would also limit the trade-in or resale values of existing mobile homes that are older than 10 years by limiting a dealers ability to sell them in Warren County, she added. The ordinance also restricts the types of siding and roofs that can be used on manufactured homes, limiting those that do not meet minimum roof-pitch requirements or that have metal siding to the same zones as mobile homes, Gillies said. These restrictions would pose problems for dealers since it restricts their ability to sell some models of new homes, said Douglas Brooks of Oakwood Homes in Bowling Green. Youre telling me Ive got seven homes on my lot right now that I cant sell in this county unless theyre going in a park, Brooks said. The intent of the ordinance is not to devalue any mobile homes, but merely to help put the brakes on the sprawl that has begun to happen in Warren County, Gillies said. Were not trying to take away value from anybodys home, were just saying its not a good idea to move a 15-year-old mobile home from point A to point B, he said. Were trying to keep old-style mobile homes from coming onto one acre unimproved lots, because that is something that contributes to the sprawl that we want to control. Providing county water lines to the majority of homes in Warren County contributed to the increased sprawl, Commissioner Larkin Ritter said. A few years ago, a county judge-executive made a point to extend the water lines to anybody who wanted them, and that was a laudable intention, but there werent enough controls put on the development that brought with it, Ritter said. We need to do something about that. Restrictions on the locations of older mobile homes is an issue better confronted now than later, Commissioner Andrew Parsley Jr. said. Theres a county adjacent to us that never addressed this problem before and now theyre having to work at it backwards, because every old trailer in this region ended up there, Parsley said. We need to make sure we avoid that problem. Allen County is trying to develop mobile home regulations because some mobile homes have become a nuisance. A motion by Ritter and second by Commissioner James A. Williams to approve the commissions recommendation of the ordinance passed 10-2, with Furlong and Commissioner Gerald Brown opposed. The target date for the ordinance to take effect is Dec. 1, Gillies said. Between now and then, it will have to be approved by each city council and Warren Fiscal Court after two readings at each entity, he said. Were hoping it will come on line then, Gillies added. This was a much needed revision since the last ordinance was the original one and was adopted in 1958.