Where can I park my Tiny Home? Where to park is only limited to creativity (and some local laws, perhaps).
Where Do I Park My THOW?
Since every city, county and state in the US currently has different rules, regulations, and definitions concerning tiny homes on wheels, we cannot possibly know them all. But we can recommend what to look for and who to talk to.
You will first want to check with your city, county, and state zoning and planning boards concerning local laws.
You may look for willing landowners, farms, RV parks, tiny home villages, or consider purchasing real estate. Real estate often might involve running new utilities to the property in order to accomodate the tiny home, if they are legal. Sometimes they are considered as ADU’s, or accessory dwelling units on properties that already have housing on them.
We have heard of people having some success looking in the parking/storage section of Craigslist, or looking for RV spots on Hipcamp. On Facebook there is a group called Tiny House Hosting, and often each state will have some kind of facebook group related to tiny homes.
Generally speaking, work your network. Often our clients know someone who connected them to a parking spot.
Tiny House Talks has a good article about parking:
http://tinyhousetalk.com/where-to-park-your-tiny-house.
For Larimer County ordinances, look here. For City of Fort Collins ordinances look here.
2022: Link to current Colorado bill regarding Tiny Homes – PASSED 5/9/2022
Currently the Technical Advisory Committee on the State Housing Board is developing the standards to use to regulate Tiny Homes and Houses in the State of CO. We cannot advise on how these rules will shake out, other than to let people know that this bill does not in any way force tiny home legality on any jurisdiction in the State of CO. It is just setup to be a guideline at this time. It is still up to local jurisdictions to choose to change their laws and statutes.
What do I need in my parking spot?
When considering a potential parking spot, you need to think about the following:
Access
1. Can the road approaching your site accommodate a tractor trailer driving up its grade and turning into the property where the home will be parked?
2. Does the approach, or driveway leading to your parking spot allow for 12′ wide and 14′ high clearance from any obstructions or branches?
3. Can a tractor trailer turn around in order to drop your house onto its parking pad? Do you have access to a forklift or other machinery that you can use to safely maneuver the home onto the parking pad?
On-Grid
1. Does the site have a 50amp or 220 outlet available or able to be run within 100 feet of the parking site?
2. Does the site have some kind of spigot hookup for a heated potable water hose within 100 feet of the parking site?
3. Does the site have some kind of septic system cleanout pipe or access within 50 feet of the parking site?
Off-Grid
1. Will the site or your situation better accommodate a ground mount or roof mount solar setup? Will you have to maximize your solar gain by moving the entire house, or just with the panels on the ground? How will you maintain the solar panels in the event of snow, ash, etc. ?
2. How will you get water to your water tanks? Delivery, or occasional top off with a potable hose?
3. How will you safely dispose of your compost solids from your composting toilet? How will you deal with the gray water coming from your house?
To date, we have built and delivered over 70 homes all over the United States, and even to Hawaii and the San Juan Islands. The tiny home movement is still very new from the perspective of municipalities, but we are confident that over time they will be accepted and regulated, and much easier to find parking spots for. Until then we keep forging ahead in this new frontier.
A QUICK NOTE ON TOWING YOUR TINY HOME:
All of our Tiny Homes are built to last whether on the road more often or not.
We recommend that only experienced heavy load drivers commit to towing their tiny homes if they plan to move them more than 1 or 2 times a year.
You can have your Tiny Home shipped for the cost of about $7/mile if it is being moved less frequently.
An average tiny house weight (these days!) is around 18,000 pounds.
The truck you would tow with would be a minimum of a 1 ton with the appropriate tow package included.
