SALLISAW (KFSM) — You may have seen those tiny homes on TV, and now they’re starting to pop up in our area.
Some developers in Sallisaw are hoping to get in on the new housing trend.
“They're cute and I think that it would be something that maybe everybody could afford,” resident Shirley Tounzen said.
There is a Tiny House Outlet on Zero Street in Fort Smith, and they are quickly becoming a popular housing option. Some developers in Sallisaw are taking note of that.
“We checked the zoning regulations, the building regulations, it was just not something that we could accommodate them with,” said Keith Miller, Sallisaw’s building development director.
Then he took the idea to the city’s planning commission.
“They thought it was a great idea,” he said.
They began a nine-month project trying to find codes and ordinances that covered tiny homes and land to put them.
“We've already had some developers who own some mobile homes subdivisions that would like to convert them over to tiny homes,” Miller said.
He said the owner of Sierra Vista Mobile Homes is interested in bringing tiny houses to his property.
“The other one is Kinsey Trailer Park,” Miller said. “They want to explore the option of updating their mobile home park and using some of these tiny homes to do it.”
Miller said the average tiny house costs anywhere between $25,000-$30,000. He said local developers have told him they can make them even more affordable by building the homes on site.
“Most tiny homes are moved like travel trailers,” he explained. “They’re on an axle. We’re trying to cut that out.”
People told 5NEWS they are all for tiny homes as long as the development is done right.
“It could be something disastrous if it's not done properly,” Shelia Faith Lucas. “If it’s planned right it could be very lovely and inviting.”
Miller said he expects the city commissioners and city council to approve a plan going forward within a couple months. He anticipates tiny homes to pop up around town by the end of the year.