Gainesville, GA Allows Industrialized Housing but Maybe Not Modular

The Gainesville Times, the local newspaper in Gainesville, GA, has a section where people can write or call in and with a question and have it answered in both their print and online edition. Recently someone wrote in with this question but how it was answered made me say …. WHAT?

Can I put up a modular home in Gainesville — like one of those new energy
efficient prefabs — or is only stick-built allowed? I’m hoping to buy a small
building lot in the 30501 or 30506 ZIP code.
 The city of Gainesville
does allow for certain modular homes, ones that can be considered
industrialized buildings.

“We allow buildings that are manufactured off-site and then
come in and the pieces are attached together and looks like a single-family
residential home,” said Matt Tate, planning manager for the city of Gainesville in the
Community Development Department.
 The foundation, plumbing and hookups are completed on the
lot first, then the walls are brought in to complete the industrialized
building.
 The city does not allow mobile modular homes, trailers or
any home on wheels.

After reading the answer I’m still not sure if Gainesville allows real modular housing into their city. First, which exactly are the “certain modular homes” allowed?

If they allow modular in Gainsville, why does the planning manager say that the “walls” can be brought in? Is he talking about panelized construction?

• When will our industry begin pushing for a standard definition of what “modular/prefab” housing built to the same codes as site built? 
• When will modular housing stop being inspected so much harder than site built homes by local code officials who really don’t understand how our homes are built? 
• When will the states begin putting modular/prefab housing in the same category as site built homes and stop calling them industrialized buildings? 

So many questions and so few answers.