Some Western towns are taking a “Little House on the Prairie” to new lengths.

Meant to mitigate rising market costs, Kalispell City Council out in Montana earlier this week officially added tiny homes to their municipal code. Back in Idaho, meanwhile, places like Moscow and Boise have various allowances for tiny home neighborhoods.

This concept has consistently prompted folks in Coeur d’Alene to question whether tiny homes should be allowed within town.

“It would have to depend on how that code was structured,” City Council member Kiki Miller, who’s also an attainable housing volunteer, told the Coeur d’Alene Press earlier this week. “But it could be a win-win situation.”

Within the city, the only zoning that comes remotely close to allowing tiny homes is MH-8. This zoning, which allows for individual mobile home units at eight units per gross acre, is limited.

“For our current code, the building requirements are very prohibitive,” Miller said. “The other thing that we run into is, when these are being built, there’s different snow-load factors. It can’t be a one-size fits all.”

According to City Senior Planner Sean Holm, tiny homes are currently prohibited within Coeur d’Alene limits unless they’re completely connected to a foundation and meet minimum building code standards. Stick built dwellings, however, are allowed, if they too meet city standards.

But if it’s on wheels and is plopped in your backyard, that isn’t going to fly.

“We’ve had numerous people call and ask, ‘Can I do this in my backyard?’” Holm said. “We generally point to an ADU code.”

Holm said the reason tiny home codes are restricted to the foundation is so that the tiny home “doesn’t disappear in the middle of the night.”

“Banks don’t want it to disappear,” he said. 

There are currently 279 accessory dwelling units in the city of Coeur d’Alene. Due to new state laws, the minimum size for ADUs in Coeur d’Alene can technically be 800 square feet to 1,000 square feet or 75% of the primary dwelling.

Height limits for ADUs include 32 feet if built within the principal structure's building envelope; 18 feet for a one-story detached ADU in the rear yard; and 24 feet if built above a detached garage in the rear yard.

With this new legislation and the loosening of ADU regulations, Miller questions “why bother with other options?”

New state short-term-rental regulations are also weighing on local lawmakers. What took effect July 1, Coeur d’Alene residents no longer must obtain official permitting to operate a short-term rental on their property.

As it stands, 60% to 75% of short-term rentals in Coeur d'Alene are owned by out-of-state investors, housing data shows.

“None of that helps our local workers find a place to live,” Miller said. 

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Dan Gookin said tiny home developments oftentimes turn into rentals and problem areas that could spur crime. He also noted the possibility of outside corporations taking advantage of the new law.

“What’s to prevent a speculator from buying them all up and turning them into rentals?” he said.

According to Gookin, mitigating housing issues goes beyond creating more inventory.

 “I would prefer to focus on high paying jobs to afford the homes,” he said. “That’s a better approach.”