Building a Tiny House VillageKevinOphoff2024-03-13T11:10:04-06:00

Building A Tiny House Village

Building your own tiny house village may be the most cost-effective way to legally live in a THOW.

Infrastructure development fees for a single family home can be expensive. A water tap, if that infrastructure is nearby, can cost $10K. Electric hookup $9K, and a basic septic system $12K. That really eats into the average tiny houser’s budget. Local governmental fees and permits can be another $10K.

Placing a tiny home on a property with an existing residence is sometimes allowed as an ADU (Auxiliary Dwelling Unit). The THOW is then connected to the homes utilities avoiding “tap fees.”

Spreading the Infrastructure Costs Over Several Tiny Homes

To mitigate the high infrastructure costs, many tiny house enthusiasts are coming together with their common cause and forming “tiny home villages.” But so far, the term “Tiny House Village” does not yet appear in most municipal codes.

Zoning Laws

The zoning laws for each county can be as different as the members of each planning and zoning board. Most municipalities have areas that can be developed as RV parks. The rules governing the length of stay can be amended to “extended stay” or long-term.

You might also be able to have your property identified as a ‘Mobile Home Village,’ which allows permanent manufactured homes.

Photo from The Roaring Fork Weekly Journal

Be Proactive

Most folks have a vision in their minds of what a mobile home park looks like. Usually it’s not very positive. Like the photo above, they may think of old, rundown mobile homes crammed closely together with a lot of cars.

You’ll want to “feel-out” the local board members and inspectors before committing to the purchase of a particular piece of property. One inventive soul superimposed a picture of a cute tiny home park onto his property, and was able to change the vision in the minds of his local planning board members.

Be proactive and canvass the neighbors. They could possibly be quite adversarial in planning meetings. If you can’t convince them a Tiny Home Village would be a good thing, you may be sunk before you start.

Forest Service rules may need to be followed

Even the Forest Service might get involved, like it did with Tiny Timbers Tiny Home Park in South Fork, Colorado. Their property borders a forest service access road, so strict guidelines needed to be followed.

Building or Buying an Actual Tiny Home Village

The industry benchmark, NFPA 1194: Standard for Recreational Vehicle Parks and Campgrounds, regulates the safety-related design and construction features of recreational vehicle parks and campgrounds. This Standard is an indispensable resource for ensuring the safety and health of vacationers and park staff.

NFPA 1194 covers facilities offering temporary living sites for use by recreational vehicles, recreational park trailers, and other camping units with minimum construction requirements.

The Standard provides useful guidance on:

Designing recreational vehicle parks and campgrounds.
Addressing fire safety.
Improving environmental health and sanitation.

The 2021 edition has the latest references, plus a new Annex on park operations. NFPA 1194 is updated for consistency with the updated editions of

Referenced codes and standards including the:

2020 edition of NFPA 58: Liquefied Petroleum Gas Code.
2020 edition of NFPA 70: National Electrical Code (NEC).
2019 edition of NFPA 72: National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code.

A new Annex D in the 2021 edition provides guidance on park operations. For the 2021 edition, new requirements address grouped utility connection assembly pull-through sites and accessible camping unit sites. Revised annex language and figures also provide additional insight into the provisions of the standard.

Converting an existing RV campground

The Aspen Skiing Company bought and converted an existing RV park for employee housing. They sidestepped the need for many planning and approval meetings and costs. Sprouts Tiny Homes banged thirty tiny homes together in just six months. Housing for ninety employees was created quickly and relatively inexpensively in a very short time. See more on the project here.

River Run in Silt, Colorado has been a campground for many years. They are currently expanding an area specifically for a tiny home village. Their plan is to build all of the tiny houses and rent them. It is currently in the construction phase.

Dave Reynolds has been investing in RV parks for decades. His book, shown here, may provide valuable advice for converting an existing RV park to a tiny home village. Dave also has several online courses detailing the ins-and-outs of positive RV park investing. Use the link on the right to investigate his e-courses.

Building your Own Tiny House Village from the Ground Up

You have a vision for the ultimate Tiny House Village. Write it down. Will you be living there? Is the primary purpose to provide low-cost housing for others, or more to provide a nice place to live for yourself?

Include the amenities you might want

Provide a central building that can be used as a storm shelter. This building might also provide toilets and showers, coin laundry, communal kitchen facilities, and a game room. The Tiny House Village clubhouse shown above has a small swimming pool and a hot tub with nicely landscaped gardens all around.

You might have an off-grid situation in mind, with tiny homes widely dispersed to allow large gardens and other off-grid necessities like power generation.

Think about the community

Tiny home villages naturally provide community for like-minded people. How about a community kitchen in a yurt? Perhaps include a community fire pit and a swing set. Community provides mutual support like child care. Write homeowners rules and covenants describing the community you envision.

Dreaming is nice until reality smacks you right in the kisser

With a property in mind, determine all of the building codes and zoning restrictions governing the property. You might find very detailed plans and codes already in place that you need to meet. This is going to be a lot of work.

Escalante Village site plan in Durango, Colorado. Click on image to see more about this cool tiny house village.

The existing codes will regulate:

How many sites you must to provide.
How far apart the sites must be.
The septic system you’ll need to build.
How wide your streets will need to be.
You might have rules regarding the size and types of signage.

That’s just for starters. You’ll probably need to:

Provide an environmental impact study.
Fire hazard mitigation proposal.
Soil Analysis.
Spring runoff and site drainage plans.
Topographical maps and a detailed site plan.
Industry and market research.
A professional business plan.

Establish a Company

First, seek legal and accounting advice, and talk to an insurance agent. Then establish a company and develop a business plan. You will need to be a real entity to the state and federal governments to be taken seriously. Complete financial projections to show lenders and investors.

Hire a landscape architect

A licensed professional landscape architect will help you produce the detailed plans you’ll need to provide planning committees, county commissioners, town councils, and other officials. Yep, you’re going to have to spend some money. But these companies are worth it. They might even attend the meetings with you. This proves you are serious and willing to play by the rules.

In it for the long haul

Zack Giffin, John Weisbarth, and myself.

You are now one to two years out from reaching your goal. There will be endless meetings. You’ll need to make adjustments to your plan. You might even need to find a different piece of property.

Keep your goal in mind and press on

Develop a community of supporters. Team up with others who are trying to do the same thing.

Start a Facebook page and a website to establish a presence on the Internet. Advertise your existence and gain support among the tiny house crowd.

Join the ARVC (The National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds) focused on advocating for private RV park and campground owners.

Operation Tiny Home and Zack Giffin, co-host of A&E’s TV Show Tiny House Nation, offer free tiny home building workshops for veterans. Zack brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to every workshop, offering hands-on instruction as the group builds a custom tiny home. They have a down payment assistance program to help our veterans obtain good housing. There is a similar program for native Americans.

Check out this tiny house village for some great ideas

Find a Tiny House Village with this Guide

This site focuses on communities to solve the biggest hurdle facing the tiny house movement — Where to park it?

“An extensive database coupled with a powerful search engine allows people to find their ideal Tiny House community. Jill Kanto, the website’s founder, recounts SearchTinyHouseVillages.com origin story, explains current functionality and hints towards future site expansion.”