Modular-housing request withdrawn

Proposal had faced backlash in NLR

A proposed ordinance that would have allowed a modular home to be built in the Military Heights Renewal Addition was pulled during North Little Rock City Council meeting Monday after the applicant withdrew his request because of backlash from the community.

Nathan Hamilton told other council members that applicant David Bedford called him an hour before Monday’s meeting and asked that his request be withdrawn.

The ordinance would have allowed Bedford to put a modular home at 504 W. 25th St.

“I was a little disappointed because I spent a lot of time on this, but I was going to vote against it and I figured it was going to be unanimous,” Hamilton said.

The ordinance was proposed at the March 22 meeting, but it was held by Hamilton after council members and some neighbors from the Military Heights Renewal Addition expressed hesitancy about placing a modular home on the vacant lot.

A modular home is a house built in a factory setting and then transported to the building site and assembled on a foundation. Such homes became popular in the 1980s and 1990s as an affordable alternative in neighborhoods where trailers are banned.

Controversy around modular homes reached its peak in the early 2000s when cities tried to ban the homes because residents complained about them not “fitting into” neighborhoods, according to an article from the Chicago Tribune.

Residents of the Military Heights area spoke at the meeting Monday, expressing their displeasure at the idea of a modular home being placed within their neighborhood.

Juanita Henderson, president of Military Heights Outreach Association, sent the City Council petitions with 65 signatures opposing the proposed ordinance.

“Military Heights does have some problems as most communities do, but a vacant lot is not a pressing problem for our neighborhood at this moment and time,” Henderson said in an email. “One new house, one new family, will not increase the property value nor stabilize the community.”

Henderson also questioned the reliability of the modular home potentially being built within the neighborhood.

“Military Heights homeowners question Mr. Bedford’s honesty and his builder’s credibility,” she said. “Because of that, we do not know what to expect, we do not know how the finished product will be, nor are we certain as to how the house will be used. We ask, why would Mr. Bedford want to build a house in an area if he feels that the house he builds will not be worth its value, in our community, upon his completion.”

Hamilton said Bedford told him that he has no intention of bringing the issue before the council again.