Late night party’s of course. Lol
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The project in Lake Dallas is surely for trailers, which are 8½’ wide and 13½’ tall at absolute maximums. Lengths have some variability - 20’ long is common, which grosses 170ft². Larger trailers are available, but much longer than 24’ (204 ft² gross) seems to enter the realm of the gooseneck trailer which is harder to move than typical ball hitch trailer.
Net square footage for 20’ and 24’ tends to be closer to 150ft² and 180ft² respectively. Clever design can stretch this beyond what the same square footage can typically be asked to perform in a conventional house - lofts, flexible space, far smarter arrangement - but it’s still small.
Most trailer-based tiny houses effectively have two rooms:
- Greatroom (living room/kitchen/dining room/office/bedroom)
- Bathroom
The greatroom can be subdivided to a degree but there’s really no room for typical hollow walls or doors that deaden some of the little sounds and sightlines that make one acutely aware of the presence of other people; odds are other occupants will be no more than 10’ away at any given time.
When you get into some of the larger tiny homes - busses, gooseneck trailers, static buildings - you can start to perform more traditional house subdivisions.
I get the sense that you need to know your neighbors better than in typical homeowner or apartment dweller situations and exercise considerable courtesy. The tiny house communities I’ve seen stuff on / read about do seem to live a more collective lifestyle in the sense that residents of the community spend considerable time outdoors between their houses or in common areas within the community … but a lot of that is from curated material - videos and articles - so the reality is perhaps a bit different.
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I’ve lived in what would be classified as a “Tiny Home” only not mobile. When in school in Topeka, I bought a $10,000 600sf Cottage: 1 bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom (all separate rooms, damn small rooms) Was on a 37.5’ wide lot and 51’ feet. (I had the big front yard). House was 20’ x 30’, side yard ended 1" off of porch. It is the pink one in the center. Bought with student loans, lived in it 2 years, rented for a year then sold it, paid off loans. It was actually quite comfortable. Had a floor furnace that had I added a rotisserie would have made a decent BBQ in the living room. Definitely cooked your feet if stepped on.
I guess 600sf is palatial compared to these small trailer houses, oops Tiny Homes. in these are.
There were 6 of these built, two across, three deep. Built in 1923 as six stand alone rental units on one lot but was later subdivided into separate units. Since I lived there in 1980-1982, there are two garages added at the back, was parking for the two center and rear units. See Ariel view
Mine is the top left house, the square on the corner of the roof was bathroom I moved up stairs. The normal lot size for that area was 37.5’ by about 150’ deep.
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I’ll be interested to see how this works out
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Does your pic prove they are, or are not, behind? 
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@TBJK I wonder if you could skirt zoning if you parked a tiny home in or in front of a warehouse/shop… lots of tools and projects in arms length… and when the storms hit…just pull ‘er in the shop.
Look really really really carefully and you’ll see the houses. Really tiny.
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Ooops I may have stepped on one.
Just cause they get paid, doesn’t mean they aren’t incompetent scammers 
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Perhaps someone did not like the idea of this happening and stopped it legally??
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Any number of things could have gone sideways. Developer ran out of funds. Litigation/zoning dispute. Permitting surprise on a tight schedule.
Prospective tenants pulled out.
An inquiry to Lake Dallas would probably at least determine the permitting and building inspection status.
Despite warm fuzzy statements to the contrary, cities are disinventivized to encourage affordable housing because that reduces the tax base. Only reason this project stood the proverbial snowball’s chance was its density being close to that of the surrounding community. But that brings in the different challenge of introducing a markedly different demographic than incumbent residents, who will recognize this and - bless them - make their apprehension and dissatisfaction known to their government.
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Some more digging I found this, Coupled with our more than normal rain, It may account for it.
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Tiny house communities face pressure from cities because of their desires for a zero footprint. The cities want and need them connected to utilities for sanitary clean water and safe disposal of wastes and for the monthly connect fees which helps maintain the systems. They don’t want composting toilets or rainwater collection/usage and the state wants them to be connected to the electrical grid.
Based on my informal survey of the movement, there are two primary types that aspire to tiny house occupancy:
-
Hippies
- Interested in all of the above
- The face of the movement
-
The economically distressed
- Just want to be able to own their own home and escape the rent rat race
- The silent majority of the movement
I’ve read about and seen videos of hundreds of tiny homes at this point and they’re essentially custom RV’s with an angle towards efficiency and longer-term habitability than the likes of the typical Winnebago (essentially compact/easier-to-move mobile homes). Most trailer designs behave like mobile homes / RV’s, complete with standard utility connections for power, water, and sewer and could slot into an RV park with ease. And best I can tell the trailer is far and away the most popular infrastructure chosen.
Designs that are more mobile with eye towards boondocking is where offgrid elements come into play:
- Composting toilets are popular since that obviates the need for a blackwater tank albeit at the expense of routine maintenance
- Solar also helps with offgrid, however you can’t fit enough panels on the roof of a 20’ trailer to run even the smallest of air conditioning units
- Reliable offgrid power will typically mean a battery bank and generator, which adds cost and weight
- Rainwater collection is a niche thing best I can tell, typically used for landscape watering and stationary setups at that
No, once you get around moribund building codes, cities are mostly opposed to tiny homes because of what they feel they will do to the tax base, followed closely by residents concerned about what they will do to home values.
Tiny home residents are generally economically distressed one way or another thus would love to be able to just park their home somewhere at as close to zero cost as possible, which is bad for localities whose revenue is heavily dependent upon property taxes. Homeowners and renters - via their landlords - pay property tax by acre but especially by the square foot of stationary dwelling; tiny home occupants generally pay neither. Thus ordinances that make it illegal to live in a parked RV on the street, in a driveway, and oftentimes de facto - if not actual explicit - prohibitions on anything that looks smells or sounds like an accessory dwelling unit. RV/mobile home parks catering the tiny home demo (ala this Lake Dallas project) could pass taxes on to the municipality, but their prices have skyrocketed in recent years thus they have self-limited their appeal.
The residents of a city present a facade of concerns about property values that barely conceal fears about those of lower economic status coming in and eyeing what’s theirs. I’ve seen this play out time and time again every time an apartment complex is proposed, a tract of vacant land is planned with smaller lots than adjacent developments, or some commercial property rents out to a tenant seen as undesirable (check-cashing, bail bonds, pawn shop, liquor store, head shop, “novelty” shop, etc). These concerns aren’t entirely unfounded, although they seem blown a bit out of proportion to the actual impact and the implicit assumption that one’s house should appreciate far faster than inflation is why the coasts are pricing themselves out of economic reality.
It will be interesting to see if the Lake Dallas project is completed.
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Yeah, the City of Garland is always promoting Tiny Homes when they are “on parade” (I.e. stopping in town for people to ogle in person). But zoning doesn’t permit them anywhere in the city limits.
They didn’t have a response when I asked why they would promote something they don’t permit…
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They Should™ be fine at mobile home parks, but I gather that the cost of renting a lot has started to butt against the cost of an apartment.
I can’t speak to their status as accessory dwelling units on existing properties. In theory they’re fine in my city of Lewisville, but I’ve not delved too deeply into the code around them - i.e. do they have to comply with building code for larger stationary structures or other ordinances that de facto prohibit them?
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At least when I looked into most lots even within a residential zone have deed restricted that would make them not allowable. Adding to that most seem to be built without permits or coding concerns, for instance fire marshal’s requirement
I happened across the subject for Lewisville when looking at the ordinances around my forever shed project. Outbuildings - including accessory dwelling units named as such - are not blanket prohibited on residential properties, however my interest in that structure possibly becoming a domicile being theoretical and far in the future I studied it no further. Deed restrictions or something else below the level of top-level code would not surprise me.
Mobile structures might be able to squeak by since they’re “temporary”. A neighbor of mine routinely occupies the RV parked in their driveway judging by the deployed popouts, umbilicals, lights visible at night. I would not put it past municipalities to prohibit permanent improvements such as a standard RV pedestal arrangement or improved parking surfaces or occupation beyond some duration.
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