VIDALIA — Vidalia officials recently discussed ratifying an amendment to an ordinance from 2015 that would conditionally allow for mobile homes in parts of the town.

Vidalia Mayor Buz Craft said in 2014 the town adopted an ordinance concerning zoning which allowed mobile homes. However, a problem with the ordinance was discovered, Craft said, in that it did not allow for mobile homes to be placed in districts 1 and 2, where mobile homes already exist.

“Some people want to upgrade to a newer mobile home or place one because they were burned out,” Craft said. “If we are telling people you can’t live here because you can’t afford a house, then shame on us, is all I am saying, if a mobile home was there already.”

Craft said the town in 2015 amended the ordinance, but it was never ratified on the minutes. Craft said all he was looking for the aldermen to do was to ratify the ordinance that aldermen tried to change in 2015.

“We are not changing anything,” Craft said. “People have to meet certain conditions. There had to be a mobile home there before, and also it has to be a certain year model.”

The mobile home has to meet certain appearance standards, such as skirting, and the mobile home has to have been manufactured within 10 years of the date it is being placed.

Vidalia resident Theresa Dennis, who lives in district 2, said this is a change because the current ordinance does not give people an option to place a mobile home outside of a zoned mobile home park. Dennis, who addressed aldermen on April 11, also said the town has not been transparent in advertising planning and zoning meetings.

“Would you want a mobile home next to your property if the law says it is not allowed?” Dennis asked the aldermen.

District 2 Alderman Robert Gardner said he lives in a mobile home and said if Dennis is referencing the Bowman family, then they deserve to be able to put a mobile home back on the lot.

The Bowman family lost their mobile home to a fire in 2016.

“They have been there for 30 years,” Gardner said. “If it was not a problem when you moved beside them, why is it a problem now?”

Planning and Zoning Chair Cassandra Lynch said where the Bowmans live, the entire block is mobile homes except for two brick-and-mortar houses.

“Not everyone will have a framed house or a brick house,” Lynch said. “If you are not happy with it, that’s just something you are going to have to live with. There are a lot of things I’m not happy with, but that’s life. They have a right to get their house back”

Dennis said her issue is not with the Bowman family, but a lot next to her that is being used as a rental but did not have a mobile home on it this past week.

When Craft asked, Dennis said when she moved in a mobile home was on that lot.

Craft said he would have to look at the conditions to see if that was a problem. Craft said the town would put the ordinance on its website, www.cityofvidalia.com, once aldermen address it.

However, aldermen ultimately motioned to table the issue until the board’s May 9 meeting.