A Peconic-based company wants to bring prefabricated homes to the North Fork as construction costs rise and inventory remains low.
Compact Home Solutions hosted an informational session at The Agency in Southold on Oct. 30, showcasing its Swedish-designed homes and accessory dwelling units, and answering questions about installation, costs and permits.
The company sells custom-built homes created in Sweden that meet federal, state and local building codes, which are shipped to local properties.
Installations are completed by a local-third party contractor. Buyers are responsible for building and property permits, site preparation, foundation installation and utility hookups.
Sales director Maria McBride said the company has installed one three-bedroom house in Southampton and is now looking to sell prefabricated ADUs. The basic units are 450 square feet in size, with insulated floors, walls and ceilings, and cost roughly $180,000 including installation.
It takes about six months from production start to delivery, Ms. McBride said. That timeframe doesn’t include the time it takes to obtain all necessary permits, install foundation and secure utility hookups.
Cutchogue residents Vivian Velez and Tonya Kaiser attended the meeting, expressing concerns about the rising cost of living on the North Fork.
Ms. Kaiser said she was looking for ways to remain in the area, including possibly building an ADU on her property to rent out. Her daughters are 16 and 20 years old.
Ms. Velez also is looking for a soultion to keep her 27-year-old daughter from moving away because of the lack of affordable housing on the North Fork.
“We want them to stay here, we don’t want them to leave,” Ms. Velez told The Suffolk Times. “We’re trying to find ways to make them stay.”
Southold’s Housing Plan currently allows ADUs between 220 and 750 square feet. Town housing plan supervisor Andrea Menjivar said plans to increase the maximum detached ADU size and streamline the permitting process for ADUs are in the works.
“A detached ADU must be rented to a family member or someone who qualifies to be on the town’s Affordable Housing Registry, which has quite a range of incomes that you can have,” Councilwoman Anne Smith said.
The town is currently working on two housing projects: the Carroll Avenue development with cottages for purchase in Peconic and the Love Lane Apartments project in Mattituck.
Ms. Smith said the prefab homes could be another avenue to increase housing stock in town.
“This feels like the next way to sort of rapidly get more housing on the ground,” she said.