Friday, January 30, 2004

Fairburn gives OK to industrialized housing

By LINDSAY BIANCHI
lbianchi@thecitizennews.com

The Fairburn City Council got a crash course Monday night on the differences between industrial, modular and mobile housing. After a presentation highlighting the advantages of the prefabricated structures, an amendment to the existing zoning ordinance passed unanimously and allows the industrial housing to be built in the city. Clearer guidelines as to which buildings could be constructed in which zones helped give the go ahead to Fairfield Custom Homes and similar businesses.

Industrialized housing uses preconstructed sections which are shipped to the building sites on a flatbed truck and pieced together to make a completed home. The houses are constructed on top of a regular foundation, but generally have better building standards than the usual on site constructed homes. John Fields of Fairfield Custom Homes was on hand with photographic examples of the quality homes created with this method.

“They are superior to mobile homes and they meet or exceed all building codes standards,” Fields said.

The new definition of modular buildings restricts the structure to non-residential use as primarily an education facility for pre-kindergarten through grade twelve. As for mobile homes, they will now only be allowed in AG-1 and AG-2, agricultural zoning provided they meet a list of several standards set down in the rewritten ordinance.

Before the motion passed new Councilman Ron Alderman had several questions about building materials, inspection codes, plumbing hookups and warranty coverage. Once Fields answered Alderman’s questions to his satisfaction, the new councilman was in support of the amendment change.

Fields also explained he had built some of the structures in neighboring cities, and met their exacting zoning standards.