Are homes in Richmond Hill melting?

RICHMOND HILL, Ga. (WSAV) — Homes in Richmond Hill appear to be melting, according to homeowners.

It’s not because temperatures are unseasonably high or because the homes are too old.

It’s because they’re built so close together.

Neighbors tell me the sun is reflecting off their windows onto the siding of homes next door, causing it to melt off.

“Quite a bit over the past couple of years, with our houses being a bit closer, the windows are starting to melt the vinyl,” Melissa Newlove, a Richmond Hill resident, said.

Newlove took me on a tour of her neighborhood to show me some of the damage.

Almost all the homes in her area had some kind of melted siding or visible issue, and she tells me it’s not the homeowners’ fault either.

“We’ve even had some residents that they’ve replaced the vinyl on their homes a couple times, and it keeps melting. They’ve gotten to the point where they don’t even wanna bother with replacing it,” she said.

She says even for those who’ve given up on maintaining a perfect exterior, the costs eventually come back to haunt them.

“We’ve also had some neighbors before they move out, they are having to go and replace all that vinyl for the next homeowner, which is making it an additional cost.”

Those houses on the market are likely getting snapped up quickly, too.

Homes in Richmond Hill are a hot commodity right now with many people moving to the area for jobs at the soon-to-be-operational Hyundai Meta plant.

That explosive growth has led to a battle between the Homebuilders Association of Greater Savannah and a county trying to prevent its residents from facing the same fate as people like Newlove.

“I do think that there should be standards that are set for that and certain parameters for the builders, ” she said.

In a lawsuit against Bryan County, the Homebuilders Association of Greater Savannah alleges the county is making it difficult for them to build much-needed homes with restrictive regulations.

Those include Unified Development Ordinances, or design standards like acceptable distance between builds, and impact fees for new construction.

“We understand that growth is here, and it’s something we’re going to be looking forward to…but, just doing it responsibly is a big issue,” Newlove said.

Bryan County is one of the fastest-growing counties in Georgia, meaning, one way or another, they’ll need more homes.

It’s just a matter of how they choose to build them.