VENICE – Owners of 45 mobile homes in the city of Venice have requested demolition permits to replace their homes with more resilient structures, such as tiny homes and container homes.
Those applications are in response to the city’s decision to allow replacement of damaged mobile homes with alternative structures, including tiny homes or container homes, under existing zoning.
Twenty-six of those permits have been pulled by residents of either Venice Bay Mobile Home Park or the Harbor Lights Manufactured Home community on the west side of Tamiami Trail, just north of Dockside Waterfront Grill and the Porto Vista condominium complex.
The other 19 permits are in other Venice mobile home communities.
Venice had first explored changing zoning for homes in Venice Bay Mobile Home Park, located north of the KMI Bridge and bordered on either side by Tamiami Trail and U.S. 41 bypass.
It is also in a Coastal High Hazard Zone and laid out under old residential manufactured home zoning guidelines.
But further examination of existing codes prompted a decision that tiny homes or container homes could replace homes damaged by hurricanes Helene and Milton within the current zoning – providing those structures are allowed by specific homeowners associations.
Sarasota County and the cities of North Port and Sarasota have different criteria, pertaining to the type of structure allowed within mobile and manufactured home parks.
What is permitted in Sarasota County?
In unincorporated Sarasota County, only mobile homes and travel trailers are permitted in residential manufactured home zoning districts, Sarasota County spokeswoman Sara Nealeigh said via email.
Tiny homes on a chassis are treated under the Unified Development Code (UDC) as a mobile home and would be permitted as well.
A shipping container home or tiny home on a permanent foundation would be treated as a modular, single-family home.
Those home types are not permitted in the Sarasota County residential manufactured home zoning district.
To date, owners of 45 mobile homes in the city of Venice have sought demolition permits to replace damaged homes with more resilient structures. Twenty six of those have come from either the Venice Bay Mobile Home Park, foreground, or the Harbor Lights Manufactured Home community.
What is permitted in the city of Sarasota?
The city of Sarasota has specific definitions for mobile homes, manufactured home parks and modular homes that limits what can be done, city spokeswoman Jan Thornbug said via email.
Currently, shipping containers are not permitted structures in residential zone districts, but that leaves tiny homes as an option to replace an existing mobile home.
What is permitted in the city of North Port?
Both tiny homes and container homes are allowed in certain zoning districts in North Port, city spokesman Jason Bartolone said via email.
There are some caveats, he added. Both tiny homes and container homes must be built on a permanent foundation and comply with the Florida Building Code.
Homes built on a trailer or mobile chassis are only allowed in a city manufactured home zoning district, which does not have a minimum square footage size for a home.
Just as in Venice, property owner association rules or deed restrictions apply as well.
Tiny homes are allowed in North Port’s R-2 residential zoning district, which does not have a minimum square footage size for a structure.
Container homes would also be allowed in other residential zoning districts subject to minimum house square footage requirements, he added.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: 45 Venice mobile home owners seek to replace storm damaged structures