I can’t believe how many people still don’t know what modular construction is. The fault doesn’t lie with the people but rather all the National organizations that represent the entire modular, manufactured, and offsite construction industries.
A lot of new home buyers still think if their home isn’t built the same way, with the same tools and the same materials as homes 100 years ago, they think manufactured and modular homes are cheap and will lower the home values in the entire neighborhood.
That’s what is happening in Huntsville, Alabama right now. NIMBY (not in my backyard) is alive in Huntsville and it’s our fault for not making everyone aware of what we build.
Here is the article from AL.com news about a neighborhood fight to keep modular homes out:
The house trailers arrived on big transport trucks in the Blossomwood neighborhood in fast-growing Huntsville this spring. Then came the construction crane.
Residents of the post-war neighborhood suddenly found themselves living next to something unusual: a manufactured home constructed with four trailers stacked two-high at 1005 Hermitage Avenue.
GSH of Alabama, LLC., (no website found) the Huntsville-based company that brought the trailers into the neighborhood, soon put up a second manufactured home on Hermitage Avenue, and neighbors say they’ve heard the company plans to construct a third.
A dozen neighbors have since filed a complaint with the Huntsville Board of Zoning Adjustments to stop any further construction plans. They allege the construction violated the city’s zoning ordinance and say that Travis Cummings, the zoning administrator illegally allowed it to happen by subdividing the plot of land, and “bypassed both the Planning Commission and the City Council.”
In their complaint, the neighbors described the case as a “defining moment,” a “watershed moment” for Huntsville, now the most populous city in Alabama.
Neighbors say the structures are dragging down home values and creating a “nuisance,” in a neighborhood that has for decades largely consisted of single-family bungalows and ranch-style homes. They also say they didn’t get a chance to speak against the construction before the zoning administrator approved it.
CLICK HERE to read the entire AL.com article.
Pictures are from the AL.com article
