City of Purdy mulls construction of tiny homes
March 20, 2019
Vinnie Roberts
Purdy mayor Bo Prock recently received a call from Ken Madison, the owner of a trailer park in Purdy, on the subject of building tiny houses in the city of Purdy. According to Purdy City Clerk Debbie Redshaw, Madison’s only question was whether or not a tiny house could be built within city limits.
At a Purdy City Council meeting on Monday, March 11, Prock brought the issue to the council to get the council’s opinion on the matter. While Prock found little opposition on the matter, he did find that to build a tiny house in Purdy, he would first have to tear down a tiny mountain of legislation.
Tiny houses are a recent construction movement that is designed to help save residents money by trimming down the excess space, power, and plumbing needs of a standard-sized domicile. Tiny houses can be hand-made but, are generally made from sheds that have been retrofitted to accommodate basic living necessities. These homes generally have a square footage of less than 700. They usually feature a living area, a bathroom, a condensed kitchen area and a ‘sleeping-loft’, or a raised area above one of the other areas in the house that is accessed by ladder or stairs, in lieu of bedrooms.
Tiny houses generally cost anywhere from $1,000 to $7,000 per home, as opposed to the substantially higher cost of their standard counterparts.
Prock himself, both in and out of the meeting, voiced his support of homes of this nature being built in Purdy.
“I think it brings a very different, interesting culture to the community,” said Prock. “I think it’s a way for people to not spend all their money on their mortgage every month and have money to do more things that they want to do.”
While no alderman at the meeting stood opposed to the issue, several raised concerns as to whether or not Purdy’s current ordinances would allow for the construction of houses of that size within city limits.
With further research conducted during the council meeting, it was discovered that, while the city didn’t have an ordinances that explicitly forbid the building of homes at that size, there were some ordinances that could affect the council’s ability to approve the construction.
“The tiny house prospect would be held back a little bit with some of our ordinances regarding mobile trailer homes,” said Prock. “We have some specifics about size. Really, there’s not supposed to be anything smaller than a double wide within city limits. We would have to look in to rewriting some of that to accommodate the tiny houses.”
Additionally, while many tiny houses are built with composting toilets to save on plumbing costs, Prock stated that tiny homes built in Purdy would require a more traditional plumbing situation.
“I really think that would be one of the qualifications for them to be built would be the houses being hooked up to the city sewer,” said Prock.
Prock later stated that he planned to bring forward the idea of making changes to various city ordinances that would stand in the way of the potential construction project. Prock also let on that this is something of a systemic issue for the city and that this would only be the first step toward making more sweeping changes to improve life within the city.
“We have a lot of old ordinances,” stated Prock. “The majority of our ordinances need gone through and rewritten to be more in line with the times.”
Vinnie Roberts
Purdy mayor Bo Prock recently received a call from Ken Madison, the owner of a trailer park in Purdy, on the subject of building tiny houses in the city of Purdy. According to Purdy City Clerk Debbie Redshaw, Madison’s only question was whether or not a tiny house could be built within city limits.
At a Purdy City Council meeting on Monday, March 11, Prock brought the issue to the council to get the council’s opinion on the matter. While Prock found little opposition on the matter, he did find that to build a tiny house in Purdy, he would first have to tear down a tiny mountain of legislation.
Tiny houses are a recent construction movement that is designed to help save residents money by trimming down the excess space, power, and plumbing needs of a standard-sized domicile. Tiny houses can be hand-made but, are generally made from sheds that have been retrofitted to accommodate basic living necessities. These homes generally have a square footage of less than 700. They usually feature a living area, a bathroom, a condensed kitchen area and a ‘sleeping-loft’, or a raised area above one of the other areas in the house that is accessed by ladder or stairs, in lieu of bedrooms.
Tiny houses generally cost anywhere from $1,000 to $7,000 per home, as opposed to the substantially higher cost of their standard counterparts.
Prock himself, both in and out of the meeting, voiced his support of homes of this nature being built in Purdy.
“I think it brings a very different, interesting culture to the community,” said Prock. “I think it’s a way for people to not spend all their money on their mortgage every month and have money to do more things that they want to do.”
While no alderman at the meeting stood opposed to the issue, several raised concerns as to whether or not Purdy’s current ordinances would allow for the construction of houses of that size within city limits.
With further research conducted during the council meeting, it was discovered that, while the city didn’t have an ordinances that explicitly forbid the building of homes at that size, there were some ordinances that could affect the council’s ability to approve the construction.
“The tiny house prospect would be held back a little bit with some of our ordinances regarding mobile trailer homes,” said Prock. “We have some specifics about size. Really, there’s not supposed to be anything smaller than a double wide within city limits. We would have to look in to rewriting some of that to accommodate the tiny houses.”
Additionally, while many tiny houses are built with composting toilets to save on plumbing costs, Prock stated that tiny homes built in Purdy would require a more traditional plumbing situation.
“I really think that would be one of the qualifications for them to be built would be the houses being hooked up to the city sewer,” said Prock.
Prock later stated that he planned to bring forward the idea of making changes to various city ordinances that would stand in the way of the potential construction project. Prock also let on that this is something of a systemic issue for the city and that this would only be the first step toward making more sweeping changes to improve life within the city.
“We have a lot of old ordinances,” stated Prock. “The majority of our ordinances need gone through and rewritten to be more in line with the times.”
