Judge it!Judged:
3
2
2
ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- "Troublemaker" is one name Gainesville city officials could call the CEO of Building Systems Network, Grant Smereczynsky. Others who know him and support his efforts in bringing new building technologies to North Georgia and attempting to exercise protection provided by Georgia law for systems-built (industrialized) homes, call him a "rebel with a cause."
While BSN's CEO is trying to level the playing field for site-built and systems-built homes, he is coming up against discriminatory rulings, which have resulted in one option: Smereczynsky is down to fighting City Hall. Smereczynsky has been ruffling the feathers of Gainesville city officials by attempting to remove arbitraries and prohibitions on zoning ordinances that continue to stop his company from establishing systems-built homes in certain residential areas occupied by site-built homes. Meetings with City officials this week have produced no retraction of the March 31, 2005 revocation of permits for construction of two BSN homes in an R1 zoning district.
Georgia law and rulings from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs prohibits local governments from restricting In response to the City's revocation of two of BSN's permits.
Commissioner Beatty stated that industrialized buildings enjoy non-discriminatory siting protection under Georgia law and DCA rulings that manufactured housing does not. Commissioner Beatty also stated that while the right of zoning and site development is reserved to local governments to apply the DCA's regulations, "they must be reasonably and uniformly applied and enforced without distinction as to whether such building is manufactured offsite or built onsite in a conventional manner (DCA emphasis added.)" The Commissioner advised Mayor Wangemann that "the City of Gainesville may be taking action inconsistent with Georgia law and our Department's Rules related to the siting of industrialized buildings" and strongly recommended the City reconsider its position.
BSN encountered a similar issue in 2003.
Despite the Georgia law and DCA rulings prohibiting discrimination against industrialized building, Gainesville City officials have opted to ignore those statutes and instead, enforce local zoning ordinances that stop BSN from finishing their two systems-built homes. The City's prohibition violates the Uniformity Clause, Article III, Section IV, paragraph V(a) of the Georgia Constitution of 1983. Smereczynsky has challenged the City's discrimination by appealing their rulings to a higher legal authority.
Smereczynsky is an award-winning builder, honored with three first-place awards in the national Building Systems Council 2003 Excellence in Marketing & Model Home Design Awards "Innovative construction technologies have emerged faster than public education about them and zoning modifications to accommodate them." In addition, incorrect language in local zoning ordinances fails to distinguish a systems-built (modular or industrialized built) home from a manufactured home (mobile home) and has caused confusions in rulings, despite the fact that Georgia law and the DCA have provided clear language on these subjects.
"People who choose to block this type of home-construction process are simply uninformed about the process itself," he said. "Not only are industrialized homes built to the same building codes as traditional site-built housing, are required to bear the DCA insignia for adherence to codes and quality standards, and are constructed from the same materials www.buildingsystemsnetwork.com
Search the Mountain City Forum:
Aquarius
