SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Home owners looking to add a secondary unit to properties, or just wanting to build a smaller home than the current zoning bylaw allows, may be in luck now that city council is considering a "tiny house amendment" that would do away with minimum floor area requirements.

A "tiny house" in Whitehorse illustrates an affordable housing option under consideration by city council. The city is contemplating a bylaw change that would do away with minimum floor area requirements for homes. - photo courtesy of the City of Yellowknife

Tiny houses are becoming fashionable in other cities as they try to cope with urban sprawl and rising housing costs. Whitehorse, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg have all recently removed minimum floor area requirements.

The current requirements vary depending on the type of unit and its location, with the smallest minimum requirement at just under 969 square feet for a single detached home, and 398 square feet for apartment units.

The main perk of doing away with minimum floor area requirements would be more flexibility for developers, said several city councillors, including Niels Konge, Rebecca Alty and Cory Vanthuyne.

"If you can remain within guidelines for your zone, you should have free rein," said Vanthuyne.

The amendment would allow affordable housing options such as secondary suites - either attached or detached from the original home - or building houses as small as landowners desire, so long as they meet the other requirements in the zoning bylaw, said Jeffrey Humble, director of planning and development for the city, which is the department spearheading the proposed changes.

The one skeptical voice on council was that of Coun. Phil Moon Son, who said he had mixed feelings.

"The disadvantages, and these issues have been experienced in other municipalities, is that people are very wary about living next to something that doesn't even feel like a house. It feels like a shed, really," said Moon Son.

An old shed parked in the middle of the lot won't fly though, said Humble. The tiny houses would have to adhere to the city's building bylaw, as well as the National Building Code.

"What the building code requires is that they have adequate facilities," said Jeffrey Humble, the city's director of planning and development. "You can envision a one-room dwelling unit and it's gotta allow for all of those things ... as long as it

complies to other parts of

the bylaw, it goes to the building permit stage."

The building code estimates that a dwelling needs at least 220 square feet of space to provide all the necessary amenities, but Humble said the tiny houses could possibly go smaller even than that.

Humble said the allowance of tiny houses in Yellowknife will have little impact in the community-at-large.

"If somebody is to build a house in Niven Lake, you're looking at $100,000 to $150,0000 just to grade the land, and to simply put a shack on that kind of investment is unlikely," said Humble.

The tiny houses won't impact views or sunlight as much as larger houses, and they might encourage more construction projects, he said.

Humble added he is of the opinion that they are no different than secondary suites and that they could actually increase neighborhood character.

Part of their allure, he said, is that residents can build them in such a way that additions could be built on to them over time.

"People might want to build a very small unit and design it in a way they can design additions," said Humble.

"Also when a developer is building an apartment building, they can make the unit smaller and increase the number of units."

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