Want a house for $50K to $100K? Boise-area city to consider allowing tiny homes
With Treasure Valley home prices are at record highs, some residents have been turning to mobile tiny homes as a more affordable option for home ownership.
Tiny homes often resemble traditional “stick-built” homes — with bedrooms, living rooms, household appliances — except on a much smaller level. These mobile homes often have just a couple of hundred square feet and can cost anywhere between $50,000 and $100,000.
In Garden City, though, many tiny homes aren’t allowed under city code, subjecting their owners to potential criminal action.
That’s in part because Garden City does not have any code referencing tiny homes. Instead, these homes often end up falling under the same code currently used for recreational vehicles, since they often have wheels to transport them, Mayor John Evans said. In Garden City, the code allows recreational vehicles only inside RV parks, and only for up to 90 days in one location.
“The city has no stance on tiny homes,” Evans said by phone. “They currently aren’t allowed, so we have no basis to be for them or opposed.”
Hannah Ball, a developer in Garden City who is challenging Evans in the November mayoral election, said she’s working to change city code to give tiny homes legal recognition.
Ball recently submitted a code amendment that would provide legal recognition for tiny homes. She said that under current code, tiny homes are often lumped with RVs and aren’t considered permanent housing. Tiny homes have wheels and can be transported to different locations, but Ball said the construction of tiny homes separates them from RVs.
“That’s important to start distinguishing, so that cities aren’t saying, ‘What happens if it’s an old, broken-down RV?’” Ball said. “They’re different in nature, because (tiny homes) are really built of more traditional materials.”
Garden City code requires permanent dwellings to be fixed to a foundation and have all mobility equipment, such as wheels, removed. RVs are also not allowed to be accessory dwelling units, smaller housing units often placed on properties of larger homes.
Ball has a vision for addressing the city’s tight housing supply. She said she would like to see entire “tiny home communities” where college graduates, young professionals and those looking to rebuild credit could have access to quality housing.
Many people in those demographics have few permanent housing options in Garden City. As with other Treasure Valley municipalities, Garden City has seen an influx of new residents in recent years, stretching the city’s housing supply and raising prices on living units for sale or rent.
Tiny homes could help at least some of those people, Ball said.
“We believe that we could go ahead and create tiny house communities and hook them up just like (recreational vehicles) that have infrastructure in place,” she said.
The communities envisioned by Ball would resemble modern mobile home parks, but would differ in two key ways: The tiny homes could be mobile and could stay in the park on a permanent basis. RVs could stay there too, but only for 180 days, and they could make up no more than 15% of total units.
Tiny homes would also be allowed as accessory dwelling units.
Ball held a neighborhood meeting on Oct. 1. Local residents could explore two tiny home units she had on display. They resembled large trailers but with many of the features found in other new homes, including large windows, a kitchen, a shower and a washing machine.
Ball’s proposal would let tiny-home owners avoid the cost of meeting the current code’s requirements that homes be on permanent foundations, connected to utilities and with mobile equipment removed. Erick Alvarez, owner of the Tiny House Society, a Boise company that sells tiny homes, said those expenses can exceed $20,000.
Unable to afford such costs, some tiny-home owners end up leaving the area, while others try to rent space on a homeowners’ property, such as in a backyard, Alvarez said.
“They have to essentially fly under the radar and look for spaces that will not get them in trouble that they can rent from homeowners,” Alvarez said.
If a home doesn’t meet code, Garden City’s code enforcement officers will give owners a notice to rectify the problem in 10 days. If they don’t, they could be subject to a misdemeanor summons, Evans said.
Ball said several tiny home owners have contacted her after being cited for having an illegal dwelling, and 10 days is often not enough to get the units up to code. She estimated there may be as many as 50 tiny homes in Garden City operating outside current code.
Evans said claims that the city had increased code enforcement were “baseless,” and that Garden City has been consistent in its enforcement. He said the process is no different than if somebody were to let the weeds in their yard grow too tall.
“The perception that we’re picking on somebody is not true,” he said.
Changing code isn’t cheap for a citizen to propose. Ball said she’s paying about $2,000 out of her own pocket to make it happen, as citizens must pay an administrative fee to apply for a change in code on their own. Ball said she believes it’s a change that will benefit current and future Garden City residents.
“I found that a lot of people are in a lot harder financial situations than myself,” she said. “When I pay it, it’s so that somebody else doesn’t have to.”
The code change must make its way through the Design Review Committee and Planning and Zoning Commission before the City Council takes it up.
This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
.jpg)