StLToday says the Joplin Globe reports some homeowners in tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri are up in arms because modular homes are being sited next to more expensive houses. In one case a Habitat for Humanity low-income home was built across from a $280,000 house, and a modular home of lesser value went in next door. Residents of one neighborhood complained to the Planning and Zoning Board, but in some of the older neighborhoods there are restrictions only on manufactured housing, not modular homes, so there is no zoning issue to be resolved. Noting that people just want to regain their lives on their own lots, Darin Luebbering of Advance Systems Homes Inc., in Chanute, Kan. says, “If somebody had premium insurance to build back, they deserve to have that $250,000 to $300,000 house because of what they have gone through. Where the next-door neighbor can only afford $110,000, well, they deserve to have their life back together too.” Mayor Mike Woolston agrees: “”I don’t think people want the city to tell them what size and style of house they should build.”
