Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses recently met with officials from La Plata County (where we are based in SW Colorado) to discuss legalizing tiny houses within the county. Lo and behold, they were already a few steps ahead of us and have established some guidelines for allowing tiny house owners to legally place their units within the county! This is fantastic news! They are tired of watching affordable housing issues pile up without much being done about it, and luckily, they view tiny houses as a very practical means of tackling some of these issues.
There are still tons of details to iron out, but we have agreed to help them fine tune the rules and processes which they will require all applicants to go through. Here are some of the larger takeaways from the meeting though:
- Houses can be placed as a primary or accessory dwelling. There will be separate procedures for each instance.
- For New Construction, which is going to have the highest success rate of achieving a Certificate of Occupancy, there will be plan review, permitting, scheduled inspections during construction, and a final inspection procedures just as if the tiny house was a normal site built house.
- As part of the plan review, they will require engineered drawings for the trailer, wall framing, and roof framing providing for 110 psf snow load (the highest possible snow load in the county since there is developable land above 10,000 ft, and since the houses would be mobile) For site built houses this load can be adjusted per the site elevation.
- Houses must be hooked up to an approved Septic or sewer system
- For Existing Builds, professional inspections will need to occur accompanied with letters deeming the structure satisfactory for the structural needs, unless the house is already certified by an approved reciprocal entity.
- Min 220 sq ft, with 100 sq ft extra per person beyond 2 people
- Must have a separate closet
- Kitchen must have a sink, cooking appliance, refrigerator, and a clear working space of not less than 30″
- Bathroom must be separate and include a toilet, lavatory, and shower or bathtub
- All light, ventilation, and life safety requirements must be met
Keep in mind, these are just key points. The nitty gritty details will not be completely ironed out for a while, however, this is still fantastic news and a great benchmark to begin with. RMTH is very hopeful we can work with La Plata County to develop a model for counties all across Colorado and the US to utilize for allowing folks to live tiny legally!
I’m trying to find land as we speak for a tiny home community in Indiana Indianapolis
Do you think a tiny house community will likely be established in the county? Or think most people will purchase their own land to place their house?
I think odds are good, but it will take someone with a lot of money and patience to step up to the plate.
Thanks Greg….I really want to go tiny but I’m hesitant about purchasing my own land was well. Guess I’ll see how everything goes…
This is very exciting. Scoping out mountain land and will save your info for when I get the ball rolling. Great website, super informative and made it very easy to be independent in understanding who you are as a company.
Also, do you have a list of other counties in Colorado that they allow tiny houses?
Sorry, we do not.
Westcliffe, Custer County, in the Wet Mountain Valley has just started looking into allowing tiny homes because of increasing interest. jen@custerrealtycom
What would be the average price of a one acre lot in LaPlata county?
You’d have to contact a realtor. varies from 50k-600k per acre
so tiny houses are going to be allowed on residential zoned property?
I am not certain on zoned property in the county, it will likely depend on the zoning.
from what you’ve been discussing with the county, where are tiny houses allowed?
In general, any county land that isn’t zoned. I am not the expert in land use though, best to call the county directly.
Great information and AWESOME website! Do you know if composting toilets are allowed if on land in the county instead of a sewage system. Thank you!
Composting toilets are NOT allowed in La Plata per San Juan Basin Public Health
Which is BS. They cited that it doesn’t compost in cold weather. These people need to get educated. The person who wrote the book on Humanure has video’s on this very topic. There is no reason why composting toilets should not be allowed. Just plain ignorance.
I have property in Lightner creek. It has a 6000 sf main house and 2 duplexes on it. I also have a unused 1 achar part of my property that I was thinking to put 2 or 3 tiny homes on that I would buy and rent out I was going to buy the off grid so they were (self contained) could I do that? I guess now I would have to put a septic tank in, looking at previous comments.
That situation is a bit different, and you would have to talk to the county.