Is it a home or a storage shed?

Building inspector Brian McCray asked the Public Works committee to consider their options on what to do about county residents who are converting their old mobile homes into storage units.

He said the problem boils down to local residents getting a new mobile home for their property, then moving the old home back from its original footings to a new spot on their prop- erty.

After the new home is up and running, residents gut the old mobile home and use it as storage space.

McCray said the way the zoning ordinances are currently written, he doesn’t have much power to keep mobile homes from being converted for storage use even though they are to remain empty.

“I’ve been seeing a lot of problems come out of this, and I think we need to stop it now before it gets worse,” McCray said.

McCray’s main concern is these stripped mobile homes would become eyesores for the community as a whole, and they could become hazardous as they deteriorate over time.

His solution would be to limit the use of any mobile home brought into Polk County to residential use.

County manager Matt Denton told the Public Works committee he feels the ordinance needs to be changed as well.

“We’re going to continue to have problems with this, mainly because of how long mobile homes last,” he said. “They just aren’t built like a regular house.”

Commissioner Jennifer Hulsey asked for more time to study and understand the problem before any recommendations were made to the full board on an ordinance change.