Blackfoot tiny homes ordinance attracting interest
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BLACKFOOT — Since approving a city ordinance that would allow tiny-home subdivisions, the city of Blackfoot officials haven’t been able to put the phones down.
“I’m told by our planning and zoning administrator that there have been upwards of about 20 contacts,” Mayor Marc Carroll says.
Carroll, says some of those calls were from people asking about the tiny-homes ordinance, while several others were developers.
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One company, Fox Den Living, is enthusiastic about building a potential subdivision in the city, Carroll says.
“They were especially interested in a couple of areas that had already been platted for other development,” Carroll says.
Both Caroll and Councilman Chris Jensen say tiny-homes are trending right now as people are wanting to live with less. Many of the homes they’ve seen are portable with the shell of a camp trailer, or other similar structures.
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But it would be different in Blackfoot. The new ordinance requires tiny homes to be built on either a slab foundation or a foundation with a basement. The ordinance doesn’t allow tiny-homes on wheels. Carroll says that requirement alone has attracted developers.
“They got kind of excited about putting a basement under it. They said, ‘We just never really thought about that before,'” Carroll says. “It would answer a problem as far as storage,” Carroll says.
Jensen says he’s unsure if the city was approached about a subdivision before the ordinance was proposed, but now that it’s in place, there are rules to be able to handle one.
The ordinance lays out the minimum building standards for those who want a tiny home, and how those homes will integrate with city utilities. Carroll says a potential development will have sidewalks as well, like a traditional neighborhood. The ordinance states the area will have screened garbage collection areas, and a perimiter landscaping plan.
Carroll hopes this new ordinance will continue to attract developers, as the city is “hurting for housing.”
“We need the full spectrum (of housing) — from nice rentals to affordable houses … to upwards of $250,000 homes,” Carroll says.
Carroll says some local businesses in town have plans to expand their staff by as much as 100 people in the next year, but many are concerned about where those new employees will live.
“If there’s nowhere to live around here, they’re not going to be very successful,” Carroll says.
Fox Den Living, which “builds luxury small homes/cabins for developers and individuals,” reached out to the city. The company builds homes that range from approximately 200 to 780 square feet, with pricing from $20,000 to $100,000.
So far, nothing is official with Fox Den Living or any other developer, but city leaders are happy to have boundaries in place for tiny-home neighborhoods.
“We just want to attract whatever development we can … anything to build housing for people,” Carroll says.