The West Orange City Council denied a request for a variance to the mobile home ordinance for a second time on Monday. Giancarlo Cardenas wanted to put a manufactured home on a small piece of property on Kountze Street.
There is actually a mobile home on an adjacent property, but it was grandfathered by the city’s ordinance which prohibits manufactured housing in West Orange, excluding HUD approved homes and modular homes. Cardenas got Alderman Mike Shugart to make a motion for approval of the request, but the motion died for a lack of a second.
Mayor Roy McDonald tried to explain why the City Council has denied Cardenas his request for a variance twice. He believes the council is reluctant to grant a variance for fear of a wave of requests for variances to the mobile home ordinance.
McDonald added Cardenas has other options instead of a manufactured home to place on the property. “We’re not trying to tell him that he can’t live there. It’s just that we want a safe home for him to put there and in compliance with our ordinances that we presently have,” McDonald concluded.
The City Council called for the municipal election to be held jointly with the West Orange-Cove School District election on May 4. Mayor McDonald’s position will be on the ballot. The seats of council members Dr. Frances Droddy-Lopez and Randy Branch will be decided as well.
Changes were made to the fees and services for the West Orange sanitation department. Piney Woods is the new garbage collector for the city and does not charge a replacement fee for damaged or lost garbage carts. The first change was to eliminate the fee the city charged for lost or damaged carts as of January 31, 2019.
Another change goes into effect August 19, 2019 to raise the sanitation fee by $2 monthly. The last change to the garbage rate was in 2010, and the $2 increase represents the three percent increase from Piney Woods for their service. The third change was setting $30 as the rental fee for businesses to use city provided dumpsters to dispose of their garbage.
The Schaumburg & Polk engineering firm was selected to perform work as part of a Community Development Block Grant if West Orange receives the grant.
West Orange renewed its membership in the coalition of municipalities in the service area of Entergy Texas. The coalition litigates any rate increase requests by Entergy to the Texas Utility Commission.
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