Tiny houses face big policy hurdles in Petaluma

While the tiny units sound primed as the ultimate infill project, Stephen Marshall, owner of Little House on the Trailer, cited one major barrier to their widespread adoption in Petaluma and in many cities elsewhere: red tape.|

The diminutive “tiny house” has now firmly entered the mainstream consciousness in the United States as the minuscule residences, evoking rustic cottages or sleek modern designs, provide something of a bohemian counterweight to the country’s suburban sprawl.

For one such home designer in Petaluma, the tiny, wheeled structures have also shown to have a more somber purpose, providing relatively affordable, secondary housing for aging seniors, disabled adults and their caregivers.

While the tiny units sound primed as the ultimate infill project, Stephen Marshall, owner of Little House on the Trailer, cited one major barrier to their widespread adoption in Petaluma and in many cities elsewhere: red tape.

“Being a tiny house on wheels doesn’t get you around any rules,” he said.

In contrast to the image of young, mobile, money-savvy buyers eschewing the trappings of material possessions to live in a quaint cottage, Marshall said more than three quarters of his customers today are over 60 years of age. After eight years in business on Petaluma Boulevard North, many of his current buyers are seeking an accessory unit to their primary home, akin to a concept commonly known as an in-law or “granny” unit.

Those models from Little House range in both size and price, starting at the $50,000 Sport House, a wheel-equipped unit at 400 square feet.

A long-time homebuilder, Marshall said many of his buyers view the approach as a more affordable option to building something from the ground up, since trailer-bound structures avoid the cost of a foundation or the expense of a building permit.

“When I build second units for people, which I don’t do anymore, they start at $300,000,” he said. But with a trailer-based tiny house, “you buy it for $50,000, and by the time it’s all hooked up, it’s $70,000. You’ve created real affordable housing.”

While the approach is relatively straightforward, the rules can be tricky. Trailer-mounted tiny homes are often considered a recreational vehicle, and many cities, including Petaluma, have very narrow rules around their use. Rural areas are generally more lenient, with full-time residence in an RV allowed in unincorporated Sonoma County if conditions like required hookups and safety conditions are met.

Living long-term on an RV as either a primary or accessory dwelling is not currently allowed in Petaluma, said Kevin Colin, a senior planner for the city. Yet the rules do allow pint-sized homes on a more traditional foundation, possibly without the need for a hearing.

“It’s just a small little dwelling,” said Colin, who noted that the structure could be considered an accessory dwelling to a primary residence if up to 640 square feet.

Petaluma does have a handful of mobile home parks with special zoning, with rules around the nature of those units coming down from the state, he said.

Marshall said that the restrictions have likely prompted a significant number of his customers to go underground, though he emphasized that it’s not a matter he provides oversight on.

“Half of my customers go under the radar,” he estimated. “I have people who live within city limits that want to provide for their aging parent, and they’ll just put a house in their backyard anyway.”

Meanwhile, Petaluma has a track record of working to ease the way for residents to build secondary granny units. Based on an analysis showing those units to have a lesser impact on city services than a full-blown, single-family dwelling, the city in 2010 lowered impact fees to around one quarter of those for a single-family home, said Scott Duiven, Petaluma’s senior planning manager.

While the intended use may be similar, Duiven said trailer-bound tiny homes exist significantly outside of that box.

“That’s, in a nutshell, the challenge. They fall into kind of this grey area, and that’s why a lot of cities are looking at it,” he said.

Living in a trailer-based tiny home in the unincorporated area outside of Petaluma city limits, Sonya Tafejian noted the complexity of fitting the petite structures into the framework of current zoning policies. Her monthly zoning workshop at Little House on the Trailer, often packed and featuring a diverse, all-ages crowd, is five hours long.

Among the nuances are zoning policies specific to the elderly, disabled and their caregivers, which is one avenue that can allow living in a certified RV under certain conditions, she said. Sonoma and at least 17 other California counties have such rules, she said.

“In counties that have this zoning, it generally only applies to the unincorporated areas. In fact, we have not yet found one city that allows this usage within the city limits,” she said.

A pilot homeless housing project planned for a county-owned parking lot near its Santa Rosa administrative headquarters is providing something of a stress test for potential permitting issues around both wheeled and foundation-based tiny homes, said Jim Leddy, the country’s special projects director. The county received six bids for the project reflecting both approaches this month, with a special review board expected to bring its recommendation to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors a short time after making their selection in late May.

The county’s policy goal currently focuses on finding a cost-effective way to house people who are currently homeless, he said.

“Most importantly about the pilot is are there barriers to these types of homes that are overly onerous when it comes to construction as a potential housing unit for people who are homeless?” he said.

Several elected officials in Petaluma said they had yet to tackle policy issues around tiny homes in the city, yet noted that they would not be surprised to see the subject emerge in the near future.

Drawing a parallel to the city’s efforts to facilitate the construction of granny units, Councilman Mike Healy noted that the addition of more housing density naturally comes with related impacts, including parking. Tiny homes located in yards may also encroach on the buffer space between neighbors, creating additional concerns.

Yet in housing-strapped Petaluma, the concept may be worth a look, he said.

“I’m not saying those issues are insurmountable,” he said. “It definitely is one thing that local governments should be taking a look at.”

Councilwoman Teresa Barrett said she’d want a close look at the units themselves, which may be considered to have limited use due to their diminutive size and issues like wheelchair access. She added that the recent adoption of an official policy around short-term vacation rentals in Petaluma could cause those structures to emerge not as a bolster to housing stock, but as a venue for sites like Airbnb.

Still, the units could be a novel approach to housing in some areas of the city.

“It could be very hip and cool. What if Green String Farm bought 10 or 15 of these things and set them up where they are for the people who come and intern there? In some ways, it’s a great idea,” she said. “But God only knows if they have the capacity to handle their off-put, and where does the water go to.”

The hypotheticals emerge at a time when housing prices are skyrocketing in Petaluma, coupled with vacancy that hovers around 1 percent.

“There’s no question housing in Sonoma County is expensive. We have to grapple with the balance between housing development and desired growth. But on the other hand, we also have to deal with maintaining basic human amenities, and quality of life,” said Councilman Dave King, the current liaison to the Petaluma Planning Commission, which reviews many of the city’s more significant construction projects

Marshall, the owner of Little House on the Trailer, estimated here were around a dozen of his homes currently located in the Petaluma area. In a city with deep agricultural roots, he said a growing demand for his Arizona-built homes is for the larger, 800-square-foot models tailored to serve as farm worker housing in remote rural areas.

The scale pushes the envelope for what might qualify as a “tiny house,” but not Marshall’s own hope for the impact of his company’s product line.

“It’s a pretty nice little house, with two bedrooms, two baths. Then the workers that are sometimes living in cars, they actually have a nice place to live,” he said.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)

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