With housing costs in Colorado extremely high, finding affordable housing is a real challenge. One answer to that problem was met with angry neighbors stating “Not In My Backyard” or NIMBY for short.
About 200 local residents greeted developers of the proposed Bonsai Village near Colorado Springs, CO with a resounding “boo!” at a recent “meet and greet” between the developers and interested area residents, but it turned combative.
At issue is the proposed development by Life Size Tiny Communities for up to 200 tiny homes on 29.5 acres at 9620 Chipita Park Road in Chipita Park with lot rentals in the $650-$850 per month range. According to their website, it will be a “BYOH – Bring Your Own Home.”
Tiny house developers can expect more NIMBY protests as tiny houses, both on and off wheels, are quickly being accepted by people that can’t afford the high price tag associated with traditional single-family homes.
These tiny house developments will have concrete pads with sewer, water and power available at every pad and renters are encouraged to pull, tow or set their tiny house on the lot.
This is exactly what a manufactured housing community does. The big difference is almost every municipality has zoning already in place indicating where manufactured communities can be located.
Manufactured housing is also built to HUD regulations and codes.
Tiny homes, on the other hand, have little or no building codes they have to follow with many of them being built by the owners themselves without any oversight.
There is a modified section to the IRC regulations just for tiny houses but for the most part, few tiny homes builders choose to follow them.
According to a local real estate broker, the NIMBY crowd in this area of Colorado can expect to lose a considerable amount of resale value for their traditional homes if this tiny house community is allowed to open.
Related Articles:
- NIMBY Opposition Forces Tiny House Community To Move
- Tiny Houses – Who Knew The Market Was This Big?
- Maine Gives Tiny Houses On Wheels Single Family Status
To begin receiving my twice weekly newsletter with offsite and modular construction news, views, polls and videos, simply subscribe to it in the form below.
Gary Fleisher is Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder magazine. Email at [email protected]
