Sturgis City Commissioners heard a presentation regarding the potential construction of a “tiny home village” during a regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday evening. The Sturgis Housing Commission has been in discussions with city staff on this project, and are proposing a development of clustered single-family housing at 208 N. Prospect St. The location is currently a vacant parcel owned by the Sturgis Housing Development Corporation.
Community Development Director Will Prichard led the presentation by explaining the concept behind what he described as a “pocket neighborhood.” Prichard said these types of communities are typically single-family residences, just smaller in scale, and would meet building code requirements. “We are trying to create a community inside a community,” he said.
Sturgis Housing Commission’s Craig Bolthouse addressed the commission next, saying the project is part of a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant which would allow the city to build the tiny home village through the Sturgis Housing Commission, and it would function under a different 501(c)(3). “The grant would come from HUD, and once it’s built, we would transfer ownership to the other 501(c)(3),” Bolthouse said. “What we’re trying to do is essentially build a community on a small piece of land. They are not really tiny homes, they’re just smaller houses.”
When it comes to the goals for the project, Bolthouse said he wants the neighborhood to be safe, visually-appealing, and to be energy and carbon-efficient. In describing the plans in place to ensure safety, Bolthouse said careful consideration has gone into the lighting for the community. “On the parking lot and on the end of the walkways in front of the houses there’s quite a bit of light. It’s very carefully calculated so as not to spill into roads and into neighbor’s houses, but it has a very, very high-level light which is on sensors,” he said. “When there’s no one walking around in the facility, the lights will dim down to about 10%. When someone walks through the community, either down the sidewalks or into the parking lot, they’ll activate and go up to full light.” He went on to give a scenario of a woman walking into her home and knowing whether someone has been in her house recently based on the lights.
Bolthouse said the homes will be stick-built construction, and not modular. “They vary from a low of 460 square feet, up to 575 square feet,” he said. “So, they’re not tiny in the sense that they’re these 100-square-foot homes. They’re a fully-functioning home that a couple could share, or a mother with a child. They’ve got an independent bathroom, living space, a full kitchen space, and a full bedroom.”
Commissioner Frank Perez asked Bolthouse if these homes would be rentals, or if there would be an option to buy. “There is no option to buy,” Bolthouse said. “They will always be owned by our 501(c)(3), but we do have an interesting lease plan.” He said the plan is to lease at market-level, as this community is not intended for low-income housing. “We’re going to lease for, let’s say $1,000 a month, and you want to sign a traditional one-year lease. If both parties want to reup the lease, they can sign it again,” he said.
The unique lease plan Bolthouse has planned has been approved by HUD and consists of a five-year lease in which there would be a slightly higher pay scale, but a percentage of every month’s payment would go into an account. “Upon termination of the lease, we would transfer that amount to a bank as a down payment on a house,” he said. “We’re going to get a financial advisor that’s going to help you (tenant) get your credit score up to the point where you can actually go ahead and be able to transfer into that homeownership position.” Bolthouse said this lease process will provide a “tremendous” amount of incentive for people to sign a five-year lease, and to also treat the property well in the process. “The goal is to just create an environment that fixes credit, and allows people to make that transition because once they do, they’re homeowners.”
Bolthouse said if the tiny home project goes well and works well, he plans to move on to something bigger. “We are going to take a percentage of these units and we’re going to turn them into available housing for domestic violence (victims), or for Child Protective Services to use anytime someone needs a home. The beauty of this system is that we don’t have the monthly expense that everyone else does because of the HUD grant.”
Prichard said the current plan is to gauge the commission’s interest in the future of a pocket neighborhood. “We haven’t put together any type of zoning ordinance,” he said. “We’ll put together ordinance language, take it back to the planning commission, and start looking at it.” After brief discussions, Mayor Jeff Mullins gained the consensus of the commission and granted permission to the planning commission to further pursue and consider the development of the project.
In closing his presentation, Bolthouse said this project is just a five-unit property, but there’s other properties the city owns, and there are grants available for situations where, for example, 30 small homes could be built and have three set aside for people in urgent need. “We can revolutionize housing in this community over the long term – assuming all the pieces fall into place. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but there’s the space and capability to really redo housing, and really change the market for housing in this community.”
Beca Welty is a staff writer and columnist for Watershed Voice.
