If the City of Moose Jaw is serious about having all its city residential areas look like cookie-cutter clones, then it should take the steps necessary to make sure there are rules in place that leave no room for any discretionary decisions.
Last week a modular home firm withdrew an application to locate a home on a South Hill lot because homeowners in the area objected to the design, suggesting it looked like a trailer and might have devalued property values of the houses already in the area.
Not in my neighbourhood, the consensus went, even though the modular home met all the standards and safety requirements of the existing codes.
If the same style of home had been built from scratch on the site, there would have been no opportunity for the residents to have an opinion - one rule for site-built homes and another for off-site modular constructions.
A drive down any city street will provide evidence of architectural diversities that have never been challenged because the homes were built there, not moved in. Some streets are a hodge-podge of bungalows, war-time houses, slabs and humungous edifices that defy any kind of ebb and flow, but all seem to get along just fine.
Does such free-spirited development devalue the properties? Some say it does but is there proof?
If this modular home had been placed on the lot and the landscaping put in place, neighbours might have been surprised at how it would have complemented surrounding homes.
Hopefully the city has learned something from this fiasco - that it needs to get its own house in order so all rules are equal for site-built or modular construction.
City needs to set rules for new homes
- Published on September 4th, 2008
- Published on July 10th, 2009
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Staff ~ The Moose Jaw Times Herald
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Comments
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- Darrell
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:16:44
As land and construction prices rise, people are going to be looking for more affordable housing. Modular construction may not be able to do much about land costs, but such homes cost about a third less to build than conventional construction. The climate-controlled factory conditions under which the houses are built result in a home that often is more durable and energy efficient than stick built housing. In a market where home owners must wait for up to two years for a conventional home to be built, there are real benefits to having a modular home ready to be installed in less time than it takes to prepare the foundation. For the building trades people, working conditions are better, with fewer workers being injured on the job. Modular home construction seems to be a new line of business for the companies that make offices, washrooms and bunk houses for the oil and mining industries, but the houses they're turning out are nothing like trailers. There's a good chance that the future of housing is in modular and pre-fabricated buildings, especially as houses become more complex to meet energy and safety requirements. Maybe people are confusing modular construction with mobile homes and ready-to-move homes. The modular homes that I've seen would be the envy of most neighbourhoods.
