CLARKTON — Residents with permanently hooked up RVs are going to receive a letter from the town kickstarting a time limit to figure out alternative arrangements.

The town board voted on Oct. 8 to let residents know they have six months.

Ben Andrews, who does the permitting on a contract basis for the town, was in attendance to answer any questions.

“An RV camper is not mentioned in our regulations,” said Cliff Hester, the town’s attorney. “The closest thing that I got to would be under mobile homes, and that would be a house trailer.”

Since town regulations are not definitive, the discussion turned toward having ordinances looked at, which Commissioner Linda Croom said was in process.

“We are on the list with the COG,” she said.

Croom was referencing the Lumber River Council of Governments, which takes on projects for the different communities to help with things like revamping ordinances. Multiple municipalities are in line to get their codes updated as well.

Hester said that the closest thing in their code was the mobile home clause, and that gives a time limit of 12 months. He said he would continue to work on this, but making action was their decision.

Concerns are raised with permanent RV living because it does not conform to the “existing building, plumbing, electrical or mobile home codes,” Hester said.

“If someone was to move one in, they have 12 months to comply,” Hester said.

Complying, however, is not clear from the code.

“Could they get a zoning permit since it is not a permanent structure?” asked Chris Hall, who is the maintenance director for the town.

“It’s not regulated by the building code, because it is not a single-family residency,” Andrews said. “Building code is not going to approve a camper for an occupancy permit.”

Andrews said that as far as electrical codes are concerned, they are classified as temporary living facilities.

“The definition of temporary by building code is 180 days,” Andrews said.

Having a camper set up to sleep in on a property that already has a single-family residence is not complying.

“Then you would have two proposed dwellings on the same lot, and a camper is not a dwelling, and you can’t sleep in it with a residence already being there,” Andrews said.

Andrews said that when FEMA brought RVs into Lumberton after the last major flooding of the area, a limit of 180 days occupancy was in place. It was only while they were fixing houses. He said some were done in nine months and some took longer.

“It may be time to update the code,” Hester said.

“I don’t want to sway you one way or another,” Andrews said. “But whatever is building code is what I am going to enforce.”

Emily M. Williams can be reached at 910-247-9133 or ewilliams@bladenjournal.com.