Small Homes, Big Roadblocks Getting municipalities on board
ALTERNATIVE HOUSING — such as tiny homes, yurts and ship- ping crates — is ideal for some folks, and although the demand is high and the interested demographic is varied (everyone from young families to retirees is getting in on the trend), there are serious roadblocks. While there’s no doubt these innovative homes could be viable ways to get around the skyrocketing price of average homes and the noticeable lack of real estate in some of Canada’s major cities, municipalities across the country are incredibly slow to give legitimacy to unorthodox dwellings. Bylaws don’t include zoning rules for the different types of nonstandard living quarters that are popping up, and policy-makers don’t seem to be in a hurry to change the rules when it comes to issues such as the minimum size of dwellings, the locations where these domiciles can be built and the building codes that need to be followed. Take tiny homes — one of the more popular alternative-liv-
ing options. Even though there are several groups in munici- palities across Canada that are working to bring attention to getting zoning regulations approved for these homes, includ- ing Tiny Home Alliance Canada (THAC), there are currently no major cities or towns that allow microdwellings, as far as THAC’s Robert Leonardo knows. That is mainly because there’s confusion over how to classify and tax them. (For
example, if a home has wheels, should it be classified as a rec- reational vehicle?) Under current city bylaws, tiny homes gen- erally aren’t permitted because, depending on the municipal- ity, the minimum size of a residence must be 400 to 700 square feet (and some tiny houses start at about 100 square feet). That’s why advocates are trying to get building codes amended to redefine the size of rooms, ceiling heights and hallway widths, among other things. Groups are also asking city councils to consider “tiny home villages” where folks live together in microhomes on a large piece of land (similar to a trailer park, but the houses are permanent structures). There’s still a lot of work to do, but there is hope in Canada: many states south of the border have updated their zoning bylaws and now allow alternative housing options. THAC helped take a step toward change last spring by pro-
viding feedback to an interprovincial group that later made a submission (the Tiny Houses National Building Code Change Request) to Canada’s National Research Council. “It can take a while, but if our recommendations go through, it will make it easier for municipalities to get on board,” Leonardo says.
LISA VAN DE GEYN is a Toronto-based writer and contributing editor to CPA Magazine
NOVEMBER 2017 | CPA MAGAZINE | 39
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