Pier-built housing up for C.R. council vote

CEDAR RAPIDS - A home built on piers without a “frost-protected foundation” may be coming to your neighborhood if the City Council today approves a zoning ordinance change sought by some local builders.

Homebuilder Randy Dostal, owner of Thomas Dostal Developers of Cedar Rapids, has been pushing for the change so he can build homes on piers in the core neighborhoods that were hit by the Floods of 2008.

“Let the market drive it,” Dostal said. “There is some consternation, ‘What if it (a flood) happens again?' This would give the community an option, and it's up to the builder to build it so it doesn't negatively impact the neighborhood.”

The city's own professional planning and building staff opposes the zoning change, though, because the ground freezes and thaws here. Vern Zakostelecky, a planner in the Community Development Department, said his agency's review of other larger Iowa cities found it “almost unheard of” for builders to seek permits for such housing.

City Council member Chuck Swore, who has supported the pier style of home construction, said he it's a legitimate construction method for Iowa and, most importantly, would cut the price of a new home.

“My interest is to have one more option for affordable housing,” he said. “If nobody wants them, nobody will buy them.”

Colleague Don Karr said pier-built housing comes with complications about how to keep the plumbing underneath from freezing. He said he might approve such housing if it was contained within a community - similar to a manufactured home community - but its use in a typical Cedar Rapids neighborhood might lower the values of homes around it.

Drew Retz, vice president of Jerry's Homes in Cedar Rapids, said pier-built housing would drive down the cost of construction and allow more people to get into “new, greener, more sustainable” housing.

Zakostelecky said the cost savings for a pier-built house might be less than proponents suggest when other factors - such as space lost in the living area to a furnace and water heater - are considered.

Dostal said a pier-built home would make for less damage from a flood even if the house didn't cost substantially less to build.

“It might be a long-term savings and a short-term peace of mind,” he said.