If you’re thinking about buying one of our portable tiny cabins, make a note to call your township, village or city planning department.
We’ve done some research for you and found that zoning and planning issues mostly are handled at the local level. The county planning departments we called referred to it as “local home rule” and deferred us to the local planning and zoning departments. We found that some townships care; some don’t.
We mention this because a couple of our customers have found that because our tiny cabins are portable (delivered on skids), some local planners are questioning whether or not rules are met. Asking for a variance is always an option. The tiny cabins are considered an “out building” so they usually wind up on a pad of limestone or cement.
In essence, the planning/zoning experts don’t like the “portable” part because they’ve had issues with these types of buildings falling into disrepair and being abandoned. You’re not going to do that with your high-quality WoodHaven tiny cabin, now, are you? We didn’t think so.
Currently some townships do not allow tiny living space. Most of our customers do not live in their tiny cabin; it’s a hunting cabin, a weekend getaway or a spot for guests to enjoy.
We’ve been in contact with the Michigan Township Association (the nonprofit group in Lansing) about this issue. They can’t help you unless you live in a township that is a member of the association. We’re doing all we can to find out what’s happening on the ground, and the MTA is planning on talking to the legislature about the situation. A staff member from the MTA may do a guest blog post for us in the near future so stay tuned.
In the meantime, your challenge should not be fierce. Once your local planning/zoning department contact realizes exactly what you have and how you plan to use it, all should be well.