Zoning › State preemptions › Rhode Island

Rhode Island Manufactured Housing By-Right (2024 HB 7980) (RI)

Tracked preemption from the Rhode Island overlay bundle.

Overview

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Effective
2024-07-01
Sunset
—
Authority
state
Scope
state:RI
Other Rhode Island preemptions
Rhode Island Transit-Area Parking Maximum (2026 package, provisional)Rhode Island Village / Mixed-Use Mandate (2025 Craven/Bissaillon)Rhode Island Statewide ADU Mandate (§45-24-73, 2023 H 6082)Rhode Island Objective-Design-Standards Requirement (2023 H 6090)Rhode Island I-195 Redevelopment District (§42-64.19, Providence)Rhode Island Zoning Enabling Act of 1991 (§45-24)Rhode Island Low and Moderate Income Housing Act — §45-53 (RI's 40B)Rhode Island Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Regulation Act (§45-22.2)
Primary-source summary
**Manufactured housing by-right** (HB 7980 / §31-44 + §45-24 cross-amendment) — manufactured housing must be permitted by-right wherever single-family is permitted. Closes the federal HUD-code parity gap left by the previously discretionary RI baseline. **ADU further loosening** — adjusted lot-size thresholds downward; additional categories brought into by-right coverage relative to the 2023 §45-24-73 baseline. **Inclusionary-zoning guardrails** — Department of Housing review of municipal IZ ordinances to ensure they don't functionally block development. **SHAB procedural tune-up** —…

Trigger predicate

When this evaluates true for a parcel, the law's preempted fields take precedence over base zoning.

parcel.base_zone_category ∈ {res_sf}

Preempted fields

2 fields on the base district schema are rewritten when the trigger fires.

FieldOpValueNote
base_districts[category=res_sf].allowed_usesaddmanufactured_housing_by_rightManufactured housing must be permitted by-right wherever single-family is permitted
base_districts[*].manufactured_housing.effective_prohibitionprohibit—Federal HUD-code parity (42 U.S.C. §5403) plus state-law-consistency; municipalities cannot zone the use-type out

Citation

Authority source
2024 HB 7980, amending R.I. Gen. Laws §31-44 and §45-24
§ §31-44 (Mobile and Manufactured Homes) + §45-24 cross-amendment
https://law.justia.com/codes/rhode-island/title-31/chapter-31-44/

Research notes

Closes the federal HUD-code parity gap left by the previously-discretionary RI baseline. Deed-restricted manufactured-housing communities count toward LMIH inventory under §45-53. Federal conflict check enabled because the by-right mandate interacts with the federal HUD code's 42 U.S.C. §5403 preemption of municipal effective-prohibition.