New Decatur Festival Highlights Tiny House Movement
Michelle Cavaliere | July 25, 2016 | 2:13 pm
Two years ago, Decatur overhauled its zoning-related regulations — resulting in our present Unified Development Ordinance. One aspect of that effort was the enabling of different types of housing, allowing for residents across a wider economic spectrum.
Many Decatur residents are probably familiar with our now fully allowable Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), which come in the form of basement apartments, granny flats over garages, and backyard cottages. On most residential lots, you can build a separate residence of up to 800 square feet, creating both a middle-income apartment for a relative or tenant and a potential income stream for the owner.
But did you know that Tiny Houses are also allowed? It’s true. So long as they’re constructed on a permanent foundation, Tiny Houses can serve as either an accessory unit or a primary residence.
Don’t go looking for those Tiny Houses you see on HGTV, though. Those are classified as trailers, which, in Decatur, cannot serve as an occupied dwelling. You’ll just have to put down roots and stay a while!
Find out more and get inspired. Here are all the details…
Decatur Tiny House Festival
Saturday, July 30 and Sunday, July 31
An exciting new festival is coming to Decatur! Could you live in 500 square feet or less? For tiny house enthusiasts, the answer is a not-so-small, “YES!” If you’re intrigued by the concept of tiny houses and small space living and want to learn more, join Tiny House Atlanta for the first-ever Decatur Tiny House Festival, July 30 and 31 in downtown Decatur. Approximately10 tiny houses will be available to tour, and experts on topics such as sustainability, minimalism, urban planning, zoning, and downsizing will be on hand to answer your questions.
Here are just a few of the fun and informative activities planned over the course of this 2-day event:
· Tiny houses will be on-site and open for tours.
· Vendors will be on hand explaining and promoting sustainable practices in the tiny house movement.
· Speaker Symposium will offer opportunities to learn from experts in different areas of the industry.
Tickets can be purchased here. A limited number of tickets will be available each day. There are still a limited number of volunteer opportunities available. Complete the volunteer form to sign up.
A portion of the event proceeds will go to the Decatur Housing Initiatives Corporation –a 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity overseen by the Decatur Housing Authority to enable the development of affordable housing, provide supportive services for low income families and children, and enhance opportunities for greater diversity in Decatur.
Image courtesy of GA Tiny Rentals.
Studies show the number one cause of wives killing husbands is tiny houses.
No, no, no. It’s not the tiny houses–it’s the junk that they KEEP in the tiny houses!
“We’ve got a festival for that”. I can’t be the only one that finds it comical Decatur is hosting a festival extolling the virtues of living in a small, efficient space . . . meanwhile the planning department is working overtime to approve demolition permits for anything under 2,000 sqft, and builders are maxing out every allowable limit on lot coverage and floor area. Just seems borderline disingenuous for this festival to be held in Decatur, where the concept of housing that is space/resource/financially efficient is pretty much a joke these days.
Tiny Homes are the houses from 1950-1960 that get torn down for McMansions.
Am I allowed to go in the opposite direction? Tear down the millenial renovation and replace it with a tiny house? I imagine that there’d be some foundation hanging out over the edges but maybe that could be the floor of a tiny wraparound porch?
I think it’s kind of bad that I want a tiny house for my backyard? But I do….
These are really cool. And I would like to see one up close. But 20 bucks – really?
It’s not a Tiny Dollars festival.
I have been following this movement since 2006 so to have a group bring it all to one location along with speakers on the topic is worth the cost in my opinion. Also, according to their website, “part of the event proceeds will go to the Decatur Housing Initiatives Corporation – a non-profit dedicated to developing affordable housing in Decatur.”
I consider my entry fee as a way to support to both organizations, Tiny House Atlanta and the Decatur Housing Initiatives Corporation. They are working to make it an option one day. I want to hear the speakers and see it in person because my retirement is going to go in this direction.
I don’t really get the tiny houses that are placed permanently out in the middle of nowhere, where there is room to build. Seems more like fetishism to me. Does make sense for high demand urban areas though.
I totally get it. Left house is less cleaning is less work.
That should have been “less house”, not “left house”, but I guess with tiny houses on huge country lots, you could have both a left house and a right house and still come out ahead on cleaning.
Went to the festival this weekend and attended two tiny talks and concluded that tiny houses will never ever ever be feasible in an urban environment beyond zoning changes like Decatur’s where home owners are allowed to build these things in the backyard of their $600k homes to become rentals (which is a pretty good idea if I were paying a $600k mortgage). Even the SCAD folk’s idea of putting these houses in urban parking decks seems pretty retarded if you think through the logical outcome. The picture of the tiny house above looks very appealing but how appealing can it be when your neighbors are two parking spaces away and without the city view I saw from the SCAD parking deck.
The urban tiny house issue has already been solved. They’re called tiny apartments/condos like in NYC and Tokyo. No urban planners are going to be convinced to lose the tax revenue by allowing less dense development. If they can be convinced, welcome to your nice urban $600k quarter acre lot.