The short version: A Kentucky law that took effect July 1 bars cities and counties from keeping a 'qualified' manufactured home out of any residential zone where a regular single-family house is allowed. On July 14, Paducah rewrote its zoning to comply, and set its own local rules on top.
For years, a Kentucky city could zone most of its neighborhoods off-limits to manufactured homes. As of this month it cannot. A state law now says that if a home clears a specific bar, a city has to let it sit on the same residential lots where site-built houses already go. Paducah is the first city in the Purchase we can confirm has written its version of the rules.
Here is what the state law does, the bar a home has to clear, and the guardrails Paducah added.
What the state law does
KRS 100.348, the compatibility-standards law, took effect July 1, 2026. It tells local governments they may not zone a 'qualified manufactured home' out of any residential district where single-family houses are permitted, may not single those homes out for tougher treatment, and may not pile on foundation rules that fight the home's own engineering. A local rule that breaks those limits is, in the statute's words, 'void and unenforceable.'
The law does not force a free-for-all. A city can still hold manufactured homes to 'compatibility standards,' things like roof pitch, square footage, siding, skirting, and setbacks, as long as those rules are no tougher than what a stick-built house on the same street has to meet. Cities also keep the power to protect historic districts. The rewrite was passed back in the 2025 session with a delayed start, so the July 1 switch-on is the part that turns it real.
What counts as a 'qualified' home
Not every manufactured home gets in. The state sets four tests, and a home has to pass all four:
Built within the five years before it is installed, with the towing gear removed.
Set on a permanent foundation, installed to state code.
At least 20 feet wide at its narrowest point, or two stories, and turned so the front door faces the street.
At least 900 square feet of living space.
Clear all four and the home is 'qualified,' and a city has to allow it the same places it allows a house. Miss one, and the old zoning still applies. That list is the whole ballgame, and it is the part most coverage leaves out.
What Paducah added
Paducah's Board of Commissioners passed three ordinances on July 14 to bring the city into line and to set the local guardrails the state law allows. By the city's own account, a qualified manufactured home in Paducah has to have:
A 5:12 roof pitch, the same slope the city asks of a regular single-family house.
A permanent foundation.
Been built within the last five years.
Its main entrance facing the street.
A lot outside any existing or pending historic district.
The changes rewrote four sections of the zoning code, including the low-density and medium-density residential rules and a renamed chapter on 'land-lease communities,' the old mobile-home-park section. Read the state's four tests and the city's five rules together and you have the actual bar in Paducah: a fairly new home, on a real foundation, that reads like the houses around it and stays out of the historic blocks.
What it means for the rest of the Purchase
The law is statewide, so every city and county in the region is under the same rule, whether or not it has updated its books yet. Paducah moved first that we can confirm. Murray's planning energy this summer has gone elsewhere, into its fight over data centers, not manufactured homes. Mayfield had a zoning ordinance up for a second reading in mid-July, though the city has not confirmed it is the manufactured-home rule.
For a homeowner or a builder, the practical takeaway is the same across the Purchase: a home that meets the state's four tests can now go in residential neighborhoods that used to be closed to it, and the only thing standing between it and the lot is the local compatibility rules, which a city has to keep in step with what it asks of everybody else.
Quick questions
What changed on July 1? A state law, KRS 100.348, now bars Kentucky cities and counties from excluding a 'qualified' manufactured home from residential zones where single-family houses are allowed.
What makes a home 'qualified'? Four things: built within five years, on a permanent foundation, at least 20 feet wide or two stories with the front door to the street, and at least 900 square feet.
Can a city still say no anywhere? Yes, within limits. It can set compatibility standards no tougher than for site-built homes, and it can still protect historic districts.
What did Paducah decide? On July 14 it passed rules requiring a 5:12 roof pitch, a permanent foundation, a build within five years, the front door facing the street, and no placement in historic districts.
Does this affect my town? If you live anywhere in Kentucky, yes. The law is statewide; cities differ only in the local compatibility rules they set.
