Our county Planning Commission is dealing with house size in the county. An ordinance was passed years ago that made a 24' x 36' residence as small as one could go in the county. There were lots of reasons most of which have probably been resolved. So it has come up and the newspapers are making a lot of hay out of it.
So do you have similar restrictions in your area and what do you think.
By the way, I have to vote on this. I'm on this planning commission.
Why not just restrict trailers?
I am not sure, even legally, how a county could justify such an ordinance. I would vote down such an ordinance in a heartbeat. Smaller homes should be encouraged. If nothing else, it is the "green" thing to do.
Old trailers were a big part of the original (1980's) ordinance. That has mostly been resolved by restricting them to zoned trailer parks.
I personally don't think the size of a house has much to do with junk but others are not so sure. I've seen plenty of junk around medium and even large houses.
My wife and I been fighting over this issue for some time now. I might be looking to live in one of these small houses if I vote for them!! She got the gold mine and I got the shaft so to speak!
Nobody from the public has shown up to the public meetings about this. But with the newspapers making hay maybe that will change. Seems like the comments from cyberspace to the news article don't hold back. Maybe with the publicity we will have a P&Z meeting where someone other than applicants show up! That would be a change.
I've seen ordinances that require a minimum width of 20' and required 900 sq ft. That allowed for double wides, but not single wides. I've also seen PUD's and condo's that allow for 500 sq ft in a terrace type setting, but no 1 bedroom units. It's no different than acreage or lot size requirements, along with setbacks, utilities, improvements, etc. Then toss in HOA deed restrictions and/or some FEMA nonsense.
I think the municipality can do whatever the elected officials mandate, via resolution and public input/voting. Otherwise, they don't get re-elected. Some parts of the planning/zoning world are good, but often they are just plain a major PIA - so we just better know the rules.
It's tough as a professional surveyor to argue too much with them, as we are just the messenger.
The reality is that some municipalities are more equal than others, and sometimes people do not exersize due dilegence before they buy property.
We've done some research. Minimum size ordinances are all over the place in our state. Some places don't have them and others do. I varies in the county for the various cities.
So I don't know whether it's constitutional or not. If it's unconstitutional he word hasn't got out.
I would like to provide a way for folks to stay out of debt or limit it while still owning their own house. I've been a debt slave my self at times, wouldn't force it on anyone else for sure. Sure is a mess we've arrived at in America!
Next we will probably be looking at whether year around camping is allowed! At that point no one would be able to enforce any ordinance.
I think some of those Katrina Cottages are pretty cool and you would think there would be a zoning level to allow that in the right places as entry level housing. I just wouldn't want such a large amount of them in one area to where they would degrade into a modern-day type of Hooverville.
We sure do.
The foot print has to be larger than 600 sq. ft. for a single family home.
I feel its a good reg. to have
House size/sq footage and the allowance...or disallowance of manufactured homes ought to be completely different ordinances as there is no relationship in reality. You can have very large, or very small, very cheap...or very expensive manufactured homes....or stick built homes. What justification, other than prop up values in neighborhoods, which can be handled by zoning, and or, subidivision regulations for individual developments, to put a minimum size on a home. A decent 500-600 square foot home can be built, many apartments are this size. I own a 3 bedroom home that is a little over 800 sq.ft. Keep in mind many "homes" in the world are 100-200 sq.ft. A fairly large camper, say 8'x 30' would be 240 square feet. Tight to be sure, but a family could live in it.
Sounds like from the article, the desire is to keep out the "undesirables" but there are many now in all price catagories looking for smaller homes. Do the county regulations have provisions for smaller townhomes and condos?
Neither zoning nor planning have any right or training to determine home sizes for any landowner. The health department might have some oversight authority strictly for health needs, the fire department might have some say on fire protection and escape provisions and those issuing building permits have some say on structural requirements. Zoning only has a right to review the proposed use as being in compliance with zoning. Planning has nothing other than a desire to control the use of other peoples property, one of the reasons this country chose to become free from the King was to do away with government taking of private property. Are we going to need to re-educate people about the provisions of the constitution, those charged with education are not teaching anything about it other than it does not mean what it says and is open to interpretation. It is not, nor ever was any more or any less than what is stated within it. Planning and those who support the taking of owners rights are enemies of freedom. The only thing planning should ever be authorized to do is to plan growth and then acquire rights-of-ways in fee to support expected growth of the private sectors needs, anything more is illegal taking of a landowners right to enjoy the use of their property, part of the rights of ownership provided for within our Constitution. I don't care if you wish to live in a tent or a mansion as long as there are no health issues crossing property lines, don't like what your neighbor is doing, buy them out or shut up and become a good neighbor instead of a whiner and complainer with dreams of dictating all around you to live to your wishes and not their own, you don't have that right in a free nation unless you enjoy a beating periodically, you do have that right in a truly free nation. We as a nation have been remiss on administering the beatings when called for, reintroduce that and all of our neighborhoods will once again become a safe, relaxing, supportive place to live because it will be full of caring, helpful and self regulating people who know what really counts in a neighborhood. Government is a destroyed of harmony when it becomes imbedded in peoples rights to choose.
jud
Never heard it as a zoning issue, though some trophy home subdivisions in the area have something like a 2500 sq ft min house size.
It is irresponsible to force people to build larger houses than they want or need.
A larger house will require the destruction of more habitat, use more resources to build and forever cost more to heat and cool.
Um...
Actually the people voted in the regs...so...
Jud, You are 100% correct. However, many people just can't be content unless they are trying to force their "values" on others. Yep, freedom is almost gone.
Your building inspector would know whether there are rules that prohibit certain houses from being established in an area. Many counties are certainly more lenient in their zoning than cities. You could restrict to homes that are possibly HUD approved, which would eliminate the old tin-can like houses that look ugly in two years. But the zoning would certainly give you the most direction and perhaps the zoning needs to be updated.
Some building codes such as the International Residential Codes have minimum sizes for various rooms by use,Bedroom, Kitchen etc. I have seen several ordinances that specify the minimum size for apartments.
