While the image of the mature “trailer park” often constitutes what people think about when they consider older manufactured housing, there are other examples in our nation’s architectural history that rightly belong within manufactured housing.

In 2005 and 2006, the Field Museum in Chicago created an exhibit celebrating manufactured housing.  “Design Innovations in Manufactured Housing” showcased some of these models of construction. A local news magazine characterized the perspective as “Pod Sweet Pod.”

The exhibit showcased all kinds of mobile housing, from kit homes to mobile homes to yurts and teepees.

As an aside, it is worth mentioning that no one asked if teepees appreciate in value.

The exhibit included an examination of the Sears Roebuck homes.

Sears built about 75,000 kit homes.  They shuttered operations in 1940, owing to the ongoing challenges from the Great Depression.  It was probably an inevitability, as World War II might have forced Sears to devote its manufactured capacity to other purposes anyway.

Many of the homes were transported by railroads.  Today, there are many Sears homes in older neighborhoods.  They require plenty of maintenance, but they are also the object of considerable affection by historical preservationists.

Following on the report of the plans to supplant 42 singlewide homes in order to build Veridia, an upscale co-housing development, are indications that the developer has made promises to the Carrboro, North Carolina Board of Aldermen that he will compensate some of the park’s residents.

The owner says that he feels the families who have lived there for a sustained time could be compensated.  He says that about 7 of the families are long-term residents, and that he would help them financially.  The others are newcomers living in transitionary housing.

The owner and would-be developer hopes to get Carrboro to cancel the requirment that at least six of the homes be priced at “affordable” rates.  In this case, they would be priced at around $120,000.

The owner has owned the park for several years.

No promises have been made to the short-term residents.

A proposal before a North Carolina town would evict residents living in singlewides in order to create more affordable single family site built housing.  The middle income housing development, called Veridia, would also have sustainable amenities.

The Board of Aldermen of Carrboro, North Carolina have heard a request from Trip Overholt to redesign Pine Grove Mobile Home Park.  Overholt owns the park, which has 42 lots for singlewides.

The new homes would be about 1350 square feet and sell for almost $300,000.  Overholt believes this is an affordable price point.  He says that an appraiser analyzed the homes in the neighborhood near the park, and found that they are routinely greater than 3,000 square feet and sell for about $700,000. His plan would put 39 homes in the footprint of the existing area, set within a co-housing plan with common spaces for residents.

That price is probably affordable to middle class residents with two jobs.

A local paper refers to Carrboro as “the Paris of Piedmont.”  It recently celebrated Dennis Kucinich Day.  The Board of Aldermen have passed resolutions against the Patriot Act and the Iraq War.  A small town of just under 17,000, It is home to many academics, a local slow food movement, and a decidely different sense of land use.

The developer is seeking to exempt the development from an affordable housing requirement.  Carrboro’s rule would stipulate that six homes in this development be priced under $120,000.

The Aldermen might be attracted by the development’s plans to include a special water catchment system, its 18 solar panels, community garden, Energy Star homes, and common house.

Unsaid, but perhaps already acknowledged, is that the people living in the singlewides will have to find a new home.   The area of Carrboro is surrounded by Chapel Hill to the East and some land zoned for agriculture to the West, South, and North.  The town of Hillsborough is about nine miles away.

The developer acknowledges that he is not building this development to make a huge profit.  It is a dream to see this kind of idea made into reality.

It is a dilemma, though, for Carrboro’s leadership.  The plan presents an opportunity to put in place some ecologically sound land-use planning.  It comes with a definite cost for the homeowners that will be forced to move on, made homeless by government fiat.

This is an example of selective progressivism.   If Carrboro lets this go ahead, they will be complicit in allowing low-income households to be set back.  It is nice to utilize plans that build community.  Energy saving solar panels and rain water catchment are good ideas that more developers should consider.  But sustainability should be kind, not elitist.

Carrboro has some definite credentials as a blue Town.  But blue for whom?