The provisions of this article shall be followed in the construction or alteration of all mobile home parks (as defined in this chapter) planned for tracts of land 15 acres or greater in size in accordance with Article
X (Mobile Home Park District) of the Township Zoning Ordinance. These regulations are in addition to those set forth in Article
X of the Township Zoning Ordinance and other applicable regulations of this Township Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance as referenced herein; compliance with all regulations of both chapters is required unless the subdivision and land development provisions are waived by the governing body or zoning variances are granted by the Township Zoning Hearing Board.
The uses allowed within a mobile home park shall be as specified in §
230-55 of the Township Zoning Ordinance.
All applications for Mobile Home Parks shall follow the procedures established in §
230-56 of the Township Zoning Ordinance. No application for subdivision or land development approval
for the construction of a mobile home park will be accepted until
the governing body has given use approval pursuant to the requirements
of the Township Zoning Ordinance.
All regulations of §§
230-59 through
230-61 of the Township Zoning Ordinance shall be adhered to in mobile home parks. In addition
thereto, the following regulations shall apply:
A. Arrangement of structures 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 the shape, size and position of structures
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 formations, 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 ensure that mobile home units are offset to block long uninterrupted
vistas between the units.
E. Street layout. Gridiron layouts and street patterns
unrelated to the topography of the site are to be avoided.
F. Roadways.
(1) Standards. All applicable standards for streets and
roads contained in the Montgomery Township Subdivision and Land Development
Ordinance of 1964, and as subsequently amended, shall be adhered to
for all public roads in and abutting mobile home developments. In
those developments wherein the roads are to be maintained as private
internal roadways owned and maintained by the mobile home park operators
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 roads and which connect major exterior
roadways, form major loops, traverse the park or provide major or
important access to adjacent parcels. No equivalent right-of-way is
required on other roads. On those roads where an equivalent right-of-way
is required, parallel parking may be permitted, but perpendicular
or angle parking is discouraged.
(b)
Pavement. The 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 20 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)
Culs-de-sac. A paved turnaround area with a
minimum radius of 50 feet shall be provided at the closed end of any
cul-de-sac road serving as the sole access of four or more mobile
home lots. No permanently closed cul-de-sac street shall exceed 500
feet in length or serve as the sole access to more than 20 mobile
home lots.
(e)
Other requirements. All other applicable requirements
of this Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance relating to grades,
vertical curves, horizontal curves, tangents between curves, sight
distance, construction specifications, intersection alignment, intersection
radius, interconnection of adjacent parcels and similar regulations
shall be adhered to in all mobile home park developments.
(2) Access limitations. Mobile home lots may have direct
access only onto minor internal streets. Direct access from a mobile
home lot shall not be permitted onto the street(s) from which the
mobile home development gains primary access.
(3) Access streets. Access to mobile home parks shall
be designed to minimize congestion and hazards at the entrances or
exits and allow free movement of traffic on adjacent streets. The
entrance roads connecting the park streets with a public street or
road shall have a minimum road pavement width of 34 feet for a distance
of at least 100 feet from the public street.
(4) 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 roads 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 park.
G. Pedestrian circulation.
(1) General requirements. All mobile home parks 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 park 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 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 all-weather off-street parking
spaces shall be provided for each dwelling either on the same lot
therewith or in common parking facilities, provided that parking areas
contained therein are within 150 feet of the mobile home lots for
which they are intended.
(a)
Aisle width. Where common parking facilities
are to be used, no parking aisle will be less than 22 feet in width.
(b)
Required green areas. Ten percent of all common
parking areas on each lot shall be devoted to green areas consisting
mostly of natural vegetation which must be interspersed within the
paved parking area to channel traffic or divide parking areas. The
green areas required by this section shall not constitute a portion
of any green area on common open spaces otherwise required by this
chapter or any other ordinance or regulation of the Township. The
exact design and location of the green areas required by this section
shall be indicated on a development or subdivision or other similar
plan and be permanently maintained as such.
I. Common open space. In addition to the requirements of §
230-61 of the Township Zoning Ordinance, the following regulations shall also apply:
(1) Common open space and buffer areas design. Common
open space, buffer areas and the circulation system should be designed
as an integrated open space system, utilizing techniques that will
produce maximum open space benefit to the resident consistent with
the unit density and density concentration on the park site.
(2) Standards for location and management. Common open
space areas shall be located and designed as areas easily accessible
to residents and preserving natural features. Common open space areas
should include both active recreation areas for all age groups and,
particularly where the site includes a watercourse or hilly or wooded
areas, land which is left in its natural state. At least 25% of the
open space areas shall be located in an area not subject to flooding
and have reasonable topography and slope to be used for active recreational
activities. No such active recreational open space areas shall be
less than 1/4 acre in size.
J. Buffers.
(1) General requirement. Along all exterior property boundary lines, except those which abut another mobile home park, there shall be a permanent buffer at least 15 feet in depth, unless this is waived pursuant to Subsection
J(4) or
(5) below. A screen buffer, as defined herein, shall be provided wherever the mobile home park abuts existing residential uses, with the exception of mid-rise or high-rise structures, and where abutting other types of uses when deemed necessary by the Township governing body to provide sufficient buffering and transition. A softening buffer, as defined herein, shall be provided wherever the mobile home park abuts existing mid-rise or high-rise residential uses; existing commercial, office, industrial, and institutional uses; any existing street [as modified by Subsection
J(3) below], drive or parking area; or open (not wooded) undeveloped land. An open buffer shall be provided wherever the mobile home park abuts wooded undeveloped land or where more extensive buffers are deemed unnecessary by the governing body.
(2) Components. The minimum components of each type of
buffer shall be as follows:
(a)
Screen buffer. The primary component of a screen
buffer shall be a row of evergreen trees at a height of not less than
six feet when planted, spaced not more than 10 feet apart on center,
and these trees shall be of such species to attain a height of not
less than 20 feet at maturity. Also required as a secondary component
of the buffer is one of the following: mounding (the use which is
encouraged), provided that the slopes shall be a maximum of 3:1; visually
opaque fencing not greater than six feet in height; and coniferous
shrubbery. Any combination of evergreen trees, coniferous shrubs,
mounding, fencing or other natural vegetation or man-made material
is allowed, provided that an effective visual screen at least 15 feet
in height above the adjacent ground elevation in the mobile home park
is achieved within a reasonable time. But whenever only vegetation
is used there shall be at least a double row of evergreen trees, with
the trees in one row offset five feet from the trees in the other
row and the rows at least five feet apart.
(b)
Softening buffer. The primary component of a
softening buffer shall be a row of trees, spaced not more than 25
feet apart on center, at least 25% of which shall be evergreen. The
evergreen trees shall be at least six feet in height when planted
and shall attain at least 20 feet in height at maturity. Any deciduous
trees shall be at least 1 1/2 inches in caliper, measured one
foot above ground level, and eight feet in height when planted and
shall attain a height of not less than 20 feet in maturity. These
trees shall be interspersed with other allowable components, including
any other type of trees, shrubs, mounding, fencing and/or similar
natural or man-made elements having a visible vertical dimension,
or any combination thereof.
(c)
Open buffer. The open buffer shall, as a minimum,
consist of grass, ground cover and/or similar vegetative material
and may include trees, shrubs or other natural or man-made landscaping
materials, but it shall be mostly vegetative rather than paved.
(3) Street boundaries. Rather than the extensive buffers described in Subsection
J(2) above, the use of a single row of deciduous trees at least eight feet in height when planted and at least 20 feet in height at maturity, with a spacing of not more than 40 feet on center, may be provided along all property boundaries which abut a street wherever necessary for adequate sight distance or where the governing body determines this to be a sufficient buffer to protect the welfare and safety of the community.
(4) Existing buffers. In cases where an edge(s) of a mobile
home park 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 edge(s) upon approval of the governing
body.
(5) Buffer alternative. Buffers may also be waived by
the governing body where the mobile home park abuts a single-family
residential use, if only detached modular homes or conventionally-built
single-family detached dwellings, but no mobile home, are constructed
within 200 feet of that property boundary.
(6) Maintenance. All vegetation shall be maintained permanently
and, in the event of death or other destruction, shall be replaced
within one year by the persons responsible for maintenance when death
or destruction occurred.
(7) Buffer landscape plan. A landscaping plan shall be
submitted with the final plans, showing all pertinent information,
including the location, size and specie 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.
K. Drainage considerations. The following site drainage
requirements shall apply to all mobile home parks.
(1) Surface water. The ground surface in all parts of
park shall be graded and equipped to drain all surface water in a
safe, efficient manner. The velocity of runoff during and after development
shall not exceed 1.5 feet per second as required by Chapter 102, Section
102.22(c) of the Erosion Control Rules and Regulations, published
by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, July 1,
1973, and as subsequently amended.
(2) Ponds and retention structures. Surface water collectors
and other bodies of standing water capable of breeding mosquitoes
and other insects shall be eliminated or controlled in a manner approved
by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources.
(3) Wastewater. Wastewater from any plumbing fixture or
sanitary sewer line shall not be deposited upon the ground surface
in any part of a mobile home park or the surrounding properties.
(4) Erosion and sediment control. All applicable regulations
and permit requirements to prevent accelerated soil erosion and resulting
sedimentation as stipulated in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Resources Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Manual, July 1, 1973,
and as subsequently amended, shall be followed by all parties engaged
in establishment of a mobile home park. (The manual is available at
the office of the Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District,
Court House, Norristown, Pennsylvania.)
L. Ground cover requirement. Exposed ground surfaces
in all parts of every mobile home park shall be paved or covered with
stone screenings or other solid material or protected with a vegetative
growth that is capable of preventing soil erosion and the emanation
of dust during dry weather. Impervious pavement shall be kept to a
minimum. All ground surfaces shall be appropriately maintained.
M. Lighting facilities. Lighting facilities shall be
provided as needed and arranged in a manner which will protect the
mobile home park residents, neighboring properties and adjacent highways
from direct glare or hazardous interference of any kind. Lighting
facilities shall be required where deemed necessary by the governing
body for the safety and convenience of the mobile home park residents
and shall be installed by the developer.
N. Required illumination of park circulation systems.
All parks shall be furnished with lighting units so spaced and equipped
with luminaires placed at such mounting heights as will provide the
following average maintained levels of illumination for the safe movement
of pedestrians and vehicles at night:
(1) All parts of the park circulation system: an average
of 0.6 footcandle with a minimum of 0.1 footcandle.
(2) Potentially hazardous locations, such as major street
intersections, parking areas and steps or step ramps: individually
illuminated with a minimum of 0.3 footcandle.
Portable hand-operated fire extinguishers of
a type suitable for use on oil fires and approved by the local fire
prevention authority shall be kept in each service building under
park control and shall be required by the mobile home operator to
be placed in each mobile home in the park, located inside the mobile
home in a fixed location, preferably near a door but not in close
proximity to cooking facilities.