At a meeting of the Cottonwood Town Council on Tuesday, Feb. 4, Cottonwood Community Development Director Scott Ellis brought up a recommendation from a recent Planning & Zoning meeting, discussing the potential for new regulations allowing for the constructions of “tiny homes” within the town’s residential zoning area.
The proposed ordinance would classify tiny homes as homes of less than 400 square feet, not counting lofts.
“We have not had inquiries from any developers wanting to create tiny home developments, but we have had inquiries from individuals interested in placing tiny homes on vacant properties as single and multi-family units throughout the city,” Ellis wrote in an email.
According to Ellis, under current regulations there is no limit to how small a house can be built, but the city building code has requirements that would make construction of a dwelling that small difficult. He proposed adopting the International Building Code’s appendix for tiny homes, allowing for construction on residential housing zoning that complies with a set of specific tiny home rules.
“A lot of tiny homes have lofts, and they try to make use of as much space as they can,” Ellis told the council. “And when you have stairs, trying to get to an upper level in any type of home, you have to have a certain angle, a certain number of steps. These building codes, especially the new appendix in the building code regarding tiny homes, kind of relaxes that a little bit, kind of lets you do a little modification on what would normally be required.”
Vice Mayor Michael Mathews took some issue with part of the proposal, noting that in areas designated as residential zoning R1 and R3, manufactured homes are not allowed, but this would allow for tiny homes to be built in those zones.
“On R1 and R3, you’re not going to let me bring in a manufactured home and set it on a foundation, ground set, but you’ll allow me to bring in a tiny home and do the same thing?” Mathews asked Ellis. “That just doesn’t seem …” ending the sentence with a laugh.
“It sounds like we’re making special exceptions for the tiny homes,” Mathews said.
Councilman Doug Hulse expressed a concern that if tiny homes started being built on vacant lots in a neighborhood of normal homes it could lead to drops in home prices.
“You’re devaluing an existing neighborhood if you allow these things to come in on an in-fill basis,” Hulse said. “The people that own these lots invest in them figuring they’ll sell them and make money or they’ll build on them, depending on their choices. But if we go away from our standard for R1, where we say you need to have a minimum of 750 square feet to build there, and they come in and put this little 200-square-foot home in the middle of the lot, that devalues the whole neighborhood. … That little home is worth probably about a quarter of what a stick-built 1,700-, 1,800-, 2,000-[square]-foot home is worth.”
Based on the two council member’s concerns, the council requested that the regulations be changed to allow site-built tiny homes on all residential housing lots, but to only allow manufactured tiny homes on R4 zoning, which already allows for manufactured homes. Mathews argued that would keep home values in neighborhoods steady, since manufactured homes are generally valued less than site-built homes.
Because the council requested this change in the regulations, the proposed ordinance has to go back to the Planning & Zoning Commission. Ellis said he hopes to bring a new ordinance on tiny homes to the council in April. Despite the requested change, the council did show signs of seeking the new regulations that would allow for tiny homes.
“I think it’s important that we do try to allow for the market demand, especially when it comes to workforce housing,” Mayor Tim Elinski said. “Any way that we can help make a dent in that is important. I [was] a proponent of tiny homes before they called them tiny homes. I know that it’s a fad, but it’s a fad that we’ve seen before. … We used to live in smaller homes.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 282-7795 or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
