The decision came at a special meeting on July 15 in which a unanimous decision was rendered.

The moratorium halts all used manufactured housing from being placed in the town for 90 days, according to Town Attorney Diane Donaghy. According to the resolution, the board determined that "the uncontrolled proliferation of mobile homes within residential areas of the town is adversely impacting property values, and the public comfort, health, peace or safety of the residents of or visitors to the town of Estancia."

Some residents in the town were upset by the moratorium, prompting one trustee to try to rescind the action.

Trustee Ivonne Riley says she voted for the moratorium before reading it, and didn't know it was for mobile or manufactured homes more than a year old. An item was on the agenda at the July 19 meeting, but no motion was made as Riley did not attend the meeting.

"I am not sure if I had made the motion to rescind the moratorium, if anything would have changed," she wrote in a letter to the Telegraph. "But I would have at least been able to explain/express what I thought about the moratorium."

The action came as the town is awaiting a ruling from state District Court on a section of the zoning ordinance prohibiting manufactured housing more than 10 years old. Permits will still be issued for manufactured or mobile homes less than a year old.

The pending District Court case stemmed from an owner of a mobile home park in town, Jim Gillespie, successfully challenging that section of the ordinance in Estancia Municipal Court. Gillespie was cited in November with four counts of violating the ordinance, according to court documents. He was accused of violating a section of the law stipulating that manufactured homes must have been constructed no more than 10 years prior to the date of application for a permit.

The mobile home park originally contained five mobile homes, and Gillespie moved in two additional homes before he was cited.

Gillespie's attorney, Kay Shafer, said the ordinance is pre-empted by federal Housing and Urban Development regulations and violates Gillespie's constitutional rights. Municipal Judge Bruce Dile agreed and dismissed the two counts pertaining to that section.

Shafer has filed a motion to dismiss the case, and the town has filed its response, but it is not known when a ruling will come down from District Court. Donaghy refused to comment on the case.

"I am not going to discuss the litigation while it is ongoing," she wrote in an e-mail last week.