Project name: Hamilton County Industrial Development Agency Workforce Housing.
What’s the design? Prefabricated log cabins with full kitchens, two bedrooms, one bath with porch and washer-dryer hookups. Park Model Log Cabins – Lancaster Log Cabins
What do the cabins cost?: Each cabin is $56,200, on land owned by the county.
Are there other costs?: Beside the initial cabin cost, the site work will be about $30,000 to get in the pads, electricity, water and sewer.
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Who will they serve?: They will be located in Lake Pleasant. Four cabins will be for seasonal workforce housing for Oak Mountain Ski Center staff and two will be for county/municipal employees.
Are there any income limitations?: No.
What made the project possible?: The Hamilton County IDA has funds from a previous land sale that cannot be easily repurposed under state regulations. “We can’t loan or gift our monies so we are investing them in what we see as a dire need in our community, said IDA Director Christy Wilt. “If we are successful with this project, we may try to replicate it in other towns in Hamilton County.”
Other benefits: The project will put the acreage back on the tax rolls, where it currently is not.
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— Tim Rowland
About this series
Adirondack Explorer is highlighting the region’s housing challenges, with a multi-part series running in our magazine and online. Award-winning Freelance Journalist Tim Rowland investigates causes of the housing shortage, housing’s effects on other aspects of Adirondack life, hacks that people use to get into a home and potential solutions being tried here and elsewhere. His reporting is based on review of real estate data, documents and extensive interviews.
I think park models are an interesting alternative, but I don’t believe they are able to be approved in many counties because they don’t meet the modular home requirements for New York State. Many are built using great construction methods far superior to trailers of days gone by with standard windows, insulation, full size appliances etc that should make them robust units to live in. I’m curious if other counties are now open to accepting them and I’m just behind the times in my information.