Whatcom considers these zoning changes for tiny homes and tiny homes on wheels
A Whatcom County Council committee will discuss zoning changes to make it easier to build tiny homes and tiny homes on wheels as part of a plan to expand affordable housing options.
These aren’t the shed-like “tiny homes” being used as emergency shelter for homeless people, but rather a house — or a moveable house — that’s more like a studio apartment than an RV.
Emergency shelters average around 100 square feet and tiny homes on wheels are about 600 square feet.
Zack Giffin, a Whatcom County resident who hosts the “Tiny House Nation” series on A&E and Netflix, said tiny homes can help with the housing crisis but are being overlooked because they fall into a regulatory gray area.
“It’s part RV, but it’s also mostly home,” Giffin told the council’s Planning and Development Committee during a hearing on Oct. 26.
Proposed changes are being discussed again at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9.
Giffin compared a tiny home on wheels to the accessory dwelling units that are being allowed in urbanized areas like Bellingham.
Jesse Rasmussen told the council about how he’s been building a tiny home for several years in unincorporated Whatcom County.
Option for ownership
“Things are so expensive here as far as renting or buying a property that this was really my only option to have a pride in home ownership, even though I’m renting a piece of land at the moment to build it on,” Rasmussen said.
His landlord is selling the property and he might need to move the home, he said.
“Council either needs to changes (its) policies or define tiny homes as a long-term housing option,” he said. “If council was willing, we could really redefine how affordable housing is addressed in Whatcom County.”
Gwyn Howat, CEO of the Mt. Baker Ski Area, said she is having trouble hiring and keeping hundreds of seasonal employees because it’s hard for them to find a place to live.
“Affordable housing is a significant issue for our workforce,” Howat said.
“I know people who are contributing members (of society), high school graduates, who are saying ‘Am I going to live in my car?’ Because they don’t have a way to transition into what is a normal housing condition,” she said.
“Our workforce, in particular, is actually choosing, wanting by choice to choose lower-impact, lower-footprint housing. And so I’m working to give them an option for philosophical reasons that I know that the younger generation in particular — but also many of us — are concerned about,” she said.
With and without utilities
Proposed new regulations separate tiny homes into two types: Those that are self-contained with batteries and water and sewage tanks like an RV, and those that aren’t self-contained and must be attached to utilities, like a house or a mobile home.
If they can’t be certified as a permanent structure like a mobile home, then they must be certified like an RV — and can only be occupied for 120 days at a time, said Curtis Metz, manager of Planning and Development Services building services division.
In general, the new rules would treat site-built tiny homes like a house or an ADU and treat manufactured tiny homes like a standard mobile home, according to a Planning and Development Services report.
Tiny homes that need hookups could be located in a mobile home park or anywhere a mobile home is allowed, and tiny homes without hookups would be regulated like RVs.
“It’s basically an RV because it’s built on a chassis with wheels but the actual structure is built to much higher standards than an RV and it looks like, acts like, is really a cottage or bungalow or cabin — it just happens to be on wheels,” said Dan Fitzpatrick, who is a.former Nevada city administrator and now president of the Tiny Home Industry Association.
“Tiny homes are an opportunity to create not only affordable housing but housing that is sustainable and eco-friendly,” Fitzpatrick told the committee.
Communities in California, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina have passed ordinances to recognize moveable tiny homes, he said.
Giffin told the committee that tiny homes on wheels are built to higher standards than RVs.
“We know that we are building safe and habitable structures,” he said. “People are doing this already and if we don’t find a legal pathway for people to do it, we’ll ensure that people will continue to do this illegally and then we’re going to have an enforcement issue.”
