What Local Zoning Changes Could Threaten an RV Park's Long-Term Value

October 9, 2026 · RV park investing, explained

CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Most RV park investors think about zoning once, during due diligence, and then stop thinking about it. That's the root of the problem. Zoning is not a static fact you confirm at closing. It's a local political process that can shift over a 10 or 20 year hold, and most of the risk shows up years after purchase, when a county updates its comprehensive plan or a city council responds to pressure from new residential neighbors. Because the risk is slow-moving and invisible day to day, investors underestimate it, then get surprised when it finally shows up on a public notice.

"My park is grandfathered in, so I'm protected"

Grandfathering (legal nonconforming use) is real, but it protects less than people assume. It typically lets you keep operating as-is. It does not usually let you expand pad count, add structures, rebuild after a casualty loss that exceeds a damage threshold (often 50 percent of value, though the exact number varies by jurisdiction), or change the mix of uses, like adding more long-term sites or cabins. If a storm takes out a third of your park and the rebuild cost crosses that threshold, you may be forced to rebuild under current code, which could mean fewer sites, larger setbacks, or new stormwater and parking requirements. The kernel of truth is that grandfathering does protect ongoing operations in most cases. The myth is that it protects your ability to grow, rebuild freely, or adapt the business model.

"Zoning only matters if I want to expand"

This is where a lot of investors get caught off guard. Zoning changes can affect you even if you never touch a shovel. Counties and cities periodically rewrite definitions for "recreational vehicle park," "campground," or "transient lodging," and those rewrites can quietly reclassify what you're allowed to do with existing sites. Some jurisdictions have tightened rules around length-of-stay limits, capping how long a guest can stay before the site counts as a residential unit, which triggers a different set of building and utility codes. Others have added short-term rental ordinances aimed at vacation rentals that get applied, intentionally or not, to RV parks with cabins or park model units. A change like this doesn't require you to expand anything. It can shrink your allowable revenue mix, cut off your highest-margin long-term stays, or force you to reclassify units you already built.

"Rezoning near my park is rare, so it's not worth tracking"

In slow-growth rural areas this can be true for long stretches. But a large share of RV parks sit in exactly the locations where rezoning pressure is highest: close to growing towns, along improving highway corridors, near lakes or rivers that are attracting second-home buyers, or on the edge of expanding metro areas. These are the same traits that make a park a good investment in the first place, which means good locations and zoning exposure often travel together. Local governments facing housing shortages have also gotten more willing to rezone land that was previously used for campgrounds or mobile home parks into multifamily or single-family residential, especially if the land sits on a road being widened or a utility line being extended. None of this requires malice toward RV parks specifically. It's usually just a jurisdiction trying to solve a housing or tax-base problem, and your parcel happens to be useful for that.

What actually matters instead

The real risk isn't a single catastrophic rezoning event. It's the slow accumulation of restrictions that chip away at what the land can do, which shows up later as a lower resale price or a smaller buyer pool. A few things are worth tracking on an ongoing basis, not just at acquisition:

• Attend or review minutes from planning commission and county commissioner meetings once or twice a year, even remotely, to see what comprehensive plan updates are being discussed near your property.
• Ask your local zoning office directly whether there have been recent or pending changes to the definition of RV park, campground, or short-term rental in your jurisdiction.
• Understand your specific nonconforming use protections in writing, including the damage threshold that would force a rebuild under current code, not just a verbal assurance from a broker or seller.
• Track what's being built or proposed within a mile or two of your park. New residential subdivisions often precede noise, traffic, and length-of-stay complaints that drive future ordinance changes.
• When you do see a public notice about a zoning text amendment, read the actual proposed language, not just the headline. Many changes are narrow and don't affect existing parks, but some quietly redefine terms that apply directly to your operation.

None of this requires a law degree. It requires treating zoning as a line item you monitor over the life of the hold, the same way you'd monitor property tax assessments or insurance premiums. A park that looks fine on paper today can lose real value a decade from now if length-of-stay rules tighten, if a rebuild after storm damage forces a smaller footprint, or if the surrounding land use shifts and your highest-and-best-use buyer pool shrinks to almost nobody. At Invest With Zac, this is part of why we look past the rent roll and into the regulatory environment before we ever talk about returns.