The New Iberia Planning and Zoning Committee will discuss two main issues during its Wednesday meeting. One of those is the possibility of revising the city’s trailer ordinance to allow trailers on properties with the immediate neighbors’ consent.

Currently, trailers are allowed only in designated trailer parks or in lots in which a trailer was in place prior to the trailer ordinance’s implementation a few years ago.

Brian Bernard, a New Iberia resident who brought this issue to the attention of the City Council through his councilman, Ernest Wilson, would like the council to revise the ordinance to resemble that for modular homes.

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Modular homes are allowed if all landowners immediately adjacent to the property agree to its placement.

Bernard said he’d like trailers to be allowed with some restrictions. Neighbors would have to give it the OK, and there would be no broken windows and “no raggedy trailers” allowed, he said. If a trailer was not up to par under the ordinance Bernard envisions, the owner would have a certain amount of time to either fix the problem or remove the trailer.

“Some properties aren’t big enough to put anything but a trailer on,” he said. “And a lot of people didn’t even have the money to leave in the hurricane — so how are they going to afford a modular home?”

Bernard said he will bring to the meeting a petition with 300 to 400 signatures, and also several people who support the change.

Planning and Zoning Director Jane Braud said the issue will most likely be considered over several meetings.

The trailer ordinance in New Iberia’s code of ordinances went through several public hearings, as well as a field trip to a St. Martinville manufacturing company, before it was put in place, said Braud.

“They do take time and put some research into their decisions,” Braud said.

Bernard said one of the reasons he’d like the change is because “you have to start somewhere.”

The meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. in the City Council chambers.