THETFORD — The Selectboard voted unanimously Monday to ease zoning rules for accessory dwelling units, but questions linger about tiny homes and their subset, tiny homes on wheels.
Planning Commission Chairman David Forbes introduced the revisions as part of an ongoing effort to “streamline the process of developing an ADU without bypassing the rigors of general standards and site reviews” and called guidelines on the chopping block “unnecessary and extraneous.”
Tim Taylor, the Development Review Board’s chairman, echoed Forbes and outlined specific reasons why each was no longer relevant or duplicates the new requirement for such units to comply with the town’s zoning regulations.
Approving the changes would “help expedite the process and do nothing to hurt the ability to see that development is done in a fashion that we respect,” Taylor said. “I think this is a good one.”
It remains unclear whether the wheeled versions of tiny homes, called THOW, are allowed.
As defined in 2018 by the International Building Code, tiny homes are permanent, single-family dwellings. THOWs are tiny homes on a chassis or trailer, designed to be transported on roads. Thetford defines all ADUs as “subordinate dwellings.”
Commission member Cynthia Shelton, who lives in a tiny home, pointed out that some types “are falling into a crack. That’s the reason we want to look at the definition that New Hampshire tried to write, so that it could be taxed as a home properly. Until you actually define what a tiny house is, you can’t do that, so that would be the first step.”
State legislatures in Vermont and New Hampshire have both made stabs at defining tiny homes in recent years, but nothing has passed.
A bill that defines tiny houses and establishes standards would do the heavy lifting for towns, and one went to the Vermont State House in February 2021.
Currently assigned to a House Committee, Bill 347 sets a maximum size (400 square feet), defines THOW and incorporates regulations for “tiny house parks.”
“At some point in the future, I expect we will incorporate tiny homes into the bylaw as an ADU and/or private dwelling,” Forbes said.
L.A. Wetzel can be reached at LAWetzel@proton.me.