Opinion ID: 1622460
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Heading: Iowa Code Section 414.28A

Text: Section 414.28A states [a] city shall not adopt or enforce zoning or subdivision regulations or other ordinances which disallow or make infeasible the plans and specifications of land-leased communities because the housing within the land-leased community will be manufactured housing. A land-leased community is any property under common ownership upon which ten or more occupied manufactured homes are harbored. . . . Iowa Code § 414.28A. Section 414.28A does not include a definition of manufactured homes. The definition, of course, is critical to our determination of the scope of the statute. The polestar of statutory interpretation is to give effect to the legislative intent of a statute. State v. Schultz, 604 N.W.2d 60, 62 (Iowa 1999) (citing Harris v. Olson, 558 N.W.2d 408, 410 (Iowa 1997)). If the legislature has not defined words of a statute, we may refer to prior decisions of this court and others, similar statutes, dictionary definitions and common usage. Iowa Dep't of Transp. v. Soward, 650 N.W.2d 569, 571 (Iowa 2002) (citing Bernau v. Iowa Dep't of Transp., 580 N.W.2d 757, 761 (Iowa 1998)). The Bahls argue [i]n all previous proceedings, the City, the City's legal counsel, the courts, and the participants in the public hearings have used the terms `mobile home' and `manufactured home' interchangeably, indicating a general understanding that the mobile homes proposed by the Bahls were in fact `manufactured homes' and protected by 414.28A. They also point to decisions from other jurisdictions finding the terms mobile home and manufactured housing are synonymous. See, e.g., Wilmoth v. Wilcox, 734 S.W.2d 656, 658 (Tex.1987) (noting in the late 1970's, the industry began using the term manufactured home instead of mobile home). But the cases the Bahls cite address restrictive covenants, not the statute at issue here. We are only concerned with how the Iowa legislature defines manufactured home. In this particular case, we need not look beyond sections 414.28 and 414.28A because they offer enough clues to determine the legislature's intent. Section 414.28A states [a] manufactured home located in a land-leased community shall be taxed under section 435.22 as if the manufactured home were located in a mobile home park. (Emphasis added.) The words as if indicate the legislature understood the difference between the terms manufactured home and mobile home and did not intend manufactured home to include mobile homes. Because of the reference to section 435.22, the Bahls invite us to consider the definitions found in chapter 435, which pertains to taxing of mobile homes and manufactured housing in parks and communities. We think the Bahls are reading too much into the reference to section 435.22. The statute reads [a] manufactured home . . . shall be taxed under section 435.22 as if the manufactured home were located in a mobile home park. Iowa Code § 414.28A (emphasis added). It does not say a manufactured home is defined in chapter 435. We think it makes more sense to refer to a definition within the chapter at issue. See State v. Hawk, 616 N.W.2d 527, 529 (Iowa 2000) ([C]ourts are obliged to consider a challenged statute in its entirety and in pari materia with other pertinent statutes.). Section 414.28, which protects manufactured homes located outside of a manufactured home community from discrimination, defines manufactured home. [7] Section 414.28 states: As used in this section,  manufactured home  means a factory-built structure, which is manufactured or constructed under the authority of 42 U.S.C. § 5403 and is to be used as a place for human habitation, but which is not constructed or equipped with a permanent hitch or other device allowing it to be moved other than for the purpose of moving to a permanent site, and which does not have attached to its body or frame any wheels or axles. Thus, the definition found in section 414.28 is limited to prefabricated homes intended to be placed on permanent foundations. There is no indication the legislature intended to expand the definition of manufactured home for purposes of section 414.28A. In Bahl I, we said it is instructive in our search for the meaning of section 414.28A to consider what the legislature intended when it enacted section 414.28. Bahl I, 656 N.W.2d at 342. This is because sections 414.28A and 414.28 are very similar. Id. at 341. We said: There appears to be very little difference between section 414.28 and section 414.28A with respect to the operative language. The primary distinction of course is that section 414.28 applies to residential structure[s] whereas section 414.28A governs land-leased communities. Id. at 342. Therefore, it is logical to use the definition of manufactured home found in section 414.28 to interpret section 414.28A. When we do, it is obvious the legislature only intended section 414.28A to protect foundation-ready prefabricated housing from discrimination. [8] Our decision in Bahl I supports this conclusion. There, we said: [T]he plain language of section 414.28A . . . reveals a legislative intent to require equal treatment of land-leased communities that are composed of manufactured homes with similar communities composed of site-built housing. Our interpretation of section 414.28A does not mean the City must allow mobile home parks in all zoning districts. Nor does it mean the City cannot regulate manufactured housing developments. The statute merely mandates that land-leased communities of manufactured housing be allowed in any district in which similar communities of site-built housing are allowed, under the same terms and conditions imposed on such developments containing traditional housing. Id. at 345 (emphasis added). Thus, Asbury's zoning ordinance requiring only foundation-ready homes be given the same treatment as site-built homes and relegating prefabricated homes with hitches, wheels, and/or axles to PUD R-3 and PUD R-4 is permissible. As the district court said, Iowa has never protected housing that comes with a permanent hitch and axles. To the extent mobile homes come with permanent hitches and axles, they have never been a protected form of housing in Iowa and were, in fact, specifically excluded from protected status. We affirm the district court's judgment.