The Tiny House Revolution: Part Two
At Nashua Builders, we are very interested in the goings-on in the prefab world. And this includes the Tiny House Revolution.
More and more, tiny houses are becoming the way to go for many people. Many of these folks just prefer to spend their money on lifestyle and enjoyment rather than plopping down large sums of money for houses and mortgages. Others simply want to own a home, and this is the best and most affordable way for them to do so.
Regardless, this exciting new trend is not without its issues—the tiny house movement is running into significant problems in the Atlanta area. Apparently, the tiny house trend is moving faster than local municipalities can change their old zoning regulations and building codes. Put simply—tiny houses often fail to meet local zoning and building code requirements, thus leaving these potential homeowners with major issues in their attempts to become actual homeowners.
The city of Atlanta currently has no formal definition of a “tiny house,” which is loosely defined by square footage. A “tiny house” is currently defined as being between 100 to 400 square feet, according to The Tiny Life, and the city uses the International Residential Code for new construction guidelines. But that only covers construction for these tiny houses, and not zoning issues established by local governments.
Which laws apply to these tiny houses also depends on the foundation of each tiny house. If the tiny house is attached to a permanent foundation, then tiny homes are essentially considered to be single-family dwellings and most area municipalities require that newly constructed homes provide at least 750 to 1,000 square feet of living space. As you can imagine, this can start to get quite complicated!
To attempt to bypass these single-family home requirements, some tiny home owners mount their tiny houses on wheels, which turns them into recreational vehicles. But once this attempt has been made, the tiny house owners then face issues about where to park these “RVs.” And, somewhat ironically, they may receive pushback from traditional RV owners who don’t want their parks turned into tiny house villages.
As you can see, these are complicated matters.
We are excited to see what happens next. We are sure it is going to work out, but the bigger questions are “When” and “How.” We at Nashua know the many great benefits of prefab construction, whether it be tiny houses, prefab office buildings, modular hotels and hospitals and you name it, we can build it.
Stay tuned for our second blog for May to see if progress has been made in the Tiny House Revolution!
You may also want to read:
Prefab Construction and Hospitals
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