The house trailers arrived on big transport trucks in the Blossomwood neighborhood in fast-growing Huntsville this spring. Then came the construction crane.

Residents of the post-war neighborhood suddenly found themselves living next to something unusual: a manufactured home constructed with four trailers stacked two-high at 1005 Hermitage Avenue.

GSH of Alabama, LLC., the Huntsville-based company that brought the trailers into the neighborhood, soon put up a second manufactured home on Hermitage Avenue, and neighbors say they’ve heard the company plans to construct a third.

A dozen neighbors have since filed a complaint with the Huntsville Board of Zoning Adjustments to stop any further construction plans. They allege the construction violated the city’s zoning ordinance and say that Travis Cummings, the zoning administrator illegally allowed it to happen by subdividing the plot of land, and “bypassed both the Planning Commission and the City Council.”

In their complaint, the neighbors described the case as a “defining moment,” a “watershed moment” for Huntsville, now the most populous city in Alabama.

Neighbors say the structures are dragging down home values and creating a “nuisance,” in a neighborhood that has for decades largely consisted of single family bungalow and ranch-style homes. They also say they didn’t get a chance to speak against the construction before the zoning administrator approved it.

“GSH desires to place a third structure, consisting of even more house trailers on Unified Lot, and the Zoning Administrator has already informed GSH that it may do so,” the neighbors allege in the complaint. “In fact…the zoning administrator himself has already obtained a street address, 1005 Hermitage Unit A, for this third building, and amended the zoning map to display this new street address.”

Attorneys for the neighbors declined to comment for this story. They are asking the Board to issue “an order restraining the Zoning Administrator from approving a building permit for the construction of a second dwelling on the Unified Lot during the pendency of this appeal.”

Everything is on hold for about a month. Ahead of the zoning board meeting last week, attorneys for the neighbors, the city and GSH reached an agreement to postpone the hearing on the issue for 30 days.

The neighbors contend that the city’s zoning ordinance does not permit the use of trailers or manufactured homes in the Blossomwood neighborhood, based on its special classification in the city’s 1963 zoning ordinance.

The ordinance also says that lots in the Blossomwood neighborhood must be at least 60 feet wide. If two or more lots with less than 60 feet width share a boundary and have one owner, they are treated as one and allowed only one home.

The neighbors say 1005 Hermitage Avenue was like that with its two lots, measuring 50 feet wide each, regarded as one.

According to their complaint, the zoning administrator granted an exception for 1005 Hermitage without approval of the Zoning Board.

The zoning ordinance allows exceptions for older lots that predate the creation of the ordinance, but in their complaint the neighbors said the decision to subdivide the lot should have come before the Board of Zoning Adjustment, which is the kind of issue the board regularly decides welcoming comments from the neighbors.

“If not corrected by the Board of Adjustment, this practice has resulted and will continue to result in the creation of incongruous and inconsistent residential districts, not only in our neighborhood, but also throughout the City, with no view to conserving the value of the buildings already standing,” they said. Kelly Schrimsher, the city’s communication director, declined to comment, citing the one-month postponement. Patrick Miller, attorney for GSH, said in an email to AL.com, “my client had no comment.”

GSH of Alabama is a disaster relief contractor founded in 2008. The company manufactures modular homes and works with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Huntsville couple Scott and Barbara Stokes own the company. GSH in June of 2022 bought the Hermitage property at auction for $675,000 after the previous owner moved.

Months after, the city’s inspection department issued a permit to demolish the bungalow home, which the Harbaugh & Sons Construction Company executed two days later. GSH later presented the City’s zoning department with a site plan for one half of the lot, which the department approved without a public hearing before the board. The City also issued new addresses for 1005 Hermitage Avenue, Units A, and B, and construction began on April 22, 2023.

The Stokes plans to move into one of the modular homes, and build another for another family, Scott Stokes told some neighbors who wrote statements in support of the complaints.

GSH’s work includes both modular to on-site construction, Barbara Stokes’ website says. ”It has worked on land planning and installation of utilities, built housing for school campuses and residential developments, as well as a long list of military projects, including bullet-resistant guard shacks,” it added. “In September 2017, post Hurricane Harvey’s Texas devastation, GSH was awarded by the federal government a $28 million modular buildings contract to be completed by March 2018.”

Two years before that, a federal judge ordered Scott and Barbara Stokes to refund $1.6 million for making fraudulent claims of being affected by the BP oil spill under another company, Vision Design Management Inc., which was registered in Florida but is no longer in operation.

The couple had not paid back the fund as of December 2020, a 2021 federal court document suggests.

The Huntsville Board of Zoning Adjustment meets at 6 p.m. every third Tuesday, and the Blossomwood neighbors’ complaint is scheduled for hearing at the next meeting, on Sept. 19.

Board Chairman Martin Sisson said that the postponement would allow members to get a full briefing on the matter. He said he expects the City to file a reply ten days before the next hearing.

Sisson said he had not yet reviewed the 23-page complaint, which was filed Aug. 11 by attorneys Patrick Chesnut and John A. Brinkley Jr. on behalf of Blossomwood neighbors Teresa M. Brosemer, Walter Brosemer, Janet Barton, Mary E. Hinkson, Rene P. Moret, Howard R. Reed, Karen Reed, Curtis O. Taylor, Jr, Karen H. Taylor, John T. Towry and Ann S. Towry.