Photo courtesy Austintinyhouse.com

Austin City Council asked city staff to review existing regulations and any proposed code amendments that might allow for the development of more tiny homes.

Responding to an Austin City Council resolution seeking more information about tiny homes, city staff released research Oct. 13 that outlines obstacles, opportunities and pitfalls from allowing more of the single-family detached homes.

Tiny houses are typically 100 to 400 square feet—about the same size as a micro unit—and are often built atop a wheeled trailer chassis, according to the city memo issued by Greg Guernsey, director of the Planning and Development Review Department.

The desire to downsize helps drive momentum for tiny homes, the memo states. Basic construction costs start at $10,000, according to the city, while higher-end detached homes cost up to $60,000—and even more for site-built tiny houses. Also, 34 percent of all Austin households are comprised of single individuals, suggesting changing demographics could help increase demand for single-person units.

City code prohibits tiny homes built on wheels from being inhabited in residential areas, but site-built detached homes are treated "the same way any other single-family home is treated," according to the memo. Tiny homes built on trailer chassis are treated the same as an RV, meaning a person could only occupy the mobile residence if it were located on property zoned for commercial, industrial or campground use.

"This means that a tiny house on wheels, located on residentially zoned property, can be stored but not inhabited," Guernsey's memo states.

A significant change to Austin's residential base zoning districts would need to made to legalize residents living in mobile tiny houses, Guernsey stated in the memo, suggesting council must essentially allow parking and living in RVs on residential property. Most U.S. cities prohibit such activity, according to the memo.

The impact of such a rule change is difficult to estimate, the memo states. City staff compares the tiny houses resolution, first approved by council in August, to an amendment proposal to encourage more accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, because most tiny homes would serve as secondary units.

"The potential exists for a large impact across the city, or a narrower, localized impact," the memo states, depending on where council might decide to allow tiny homes.

Multiple council-proposed code amendments in 2014 have drawn fire from neighborhood groups that argue any changes to city regulations should be done in the context of the CodeNEXT process, the two-year effort to rewrite Austin's land development code. The city memo echoes those concerns.

"A lengthy code amendment process risks running concurrently with CodeNEXT, causing duplication of staff effort and public participation burnout, and that broader proposed changes might be better discussed holistically in tandem with other [code] changes and not in a vacuum," the memo states.

The original resolution, approved in early August, called on the council to hear any proposed code changes related to tiny homes by Oct. 1. However, there is no agenda item listed at this time for council to take up any city staff proposal.