Homes as small as 240 square feet could be allowed in certain zoning districts in Brown County if a new ordinance is approved.

The Brown County Area Plan Commission intends to look at a draft of that ordinance during its Feb. 27 meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. at the County Office Building. Members unanimously approved the concept during a work session in January.

This month, the APC also plans to discuss shrinking minimum building lot sizes. Some members believe that the current minimums — ranging from a half-acre to 5 acres depending on zoning — pose a barrier to entering the housing market in Brown County. The more land is required before building a house, the more expensive it gets, and the more likely a prospective resident is to choose a different county.

No draft ordinance has been written on the lot size changes yet.

If the APC votes in favor of changing either ordinance, public hearings would have to be conducted and the Brown County Commissioners would need to approve them before they would go into effect.

The smallest allowable house under Brown County or Nashville ordinances is 600 square feet. The minimum is more if it’s along a state highway: 900 square feet if it’s a one-story home, or 800 square feet of ground space if it’s a two-story. Screened porches, decks and lofts don’t count toward those footprints.

APC member Alyssa Besser proposed that the new minimum home size be 240 square feet on land zoned forest reserve (FR) and 400 square feet on land zoned lake residence (LR) or secondary residential (R2).

No changes were proposed for home sizes on land zoned general business (GB) or residential (R1). “Let’s just see how this works,” APC President Dave Harden said.

Setting the bare minimum at 240 square feet would allow people to live here who are building true tiny homes, such as the kinds built on pull-behind trailers.

However, the APC’s vision is that all homes, no matter how tiny, would have an actual foundation. If it were left on wheels, it would be considered an RV or travel trailer, and those are not allowed as permanent residences, Planning Director Chris Ritzmann said.

“Even if it came in on wheels, it would have to be on a foundation,” APC member Carol Bowden said.

A young couple who’s building this sort of tiny home were among the few non-board members at the January work session.

Tyler Houchin, 32, and Stephanie Pigneri, 28, are building theirs in Bartholomew County, but they live in Marion County. Houchin was raised in Johnson County, so he’s interested in this area. Bartholomew County has no rules governing tiny homes yet, so they can’t live in it there when they finish it later this spring, he said.

“People thought tiny houses were going to be a fad seven or eight years ago, but they’re only gaining momentum,” Houchin said. He said he went to a three-day tiny house jamboree in Texas attended by 5,000 to 10,000 people. “It’s something that not just Brown County but every community across the country is going to have to deal with at some point.”

He worked framing homes until the recession in 2008 and he’s been researching the tiny home concept ever since, he said.

The couple chose to build a tiny home because of its relative affordability — about $25,000 when it’s all done — and because they wanted to be closer to nature, he said.

In past meetings about this subject, concerns have been brought up about the quality and appearance of tiny homes if they were to be allowed in Brown County, including their effect on neighboring properties.

Houchin said there are various certification organizations that will give a tiny home a stamp of approval, but those can cost thousands of dollars. “For individual people, that’s a ridiculous amount of money for people to pay to say, ‘You’ve done this right,’” he said.

Several APC members said it’s still important that any home, no matter how small, be inspected and comply with state codes. Minimum state codes are based on room sizes, not on total square footage of a home.

As for tiny homes affecting the surrounding neighborhood, “I grew up next to trailer parks and that (tiny home) looks much better than a trailer park,” Houchin said. He said he understands the concerns, but zoning laws could be changed to mitigate those concerns.

The couple are committed to using a composting toilet and putting only biodegradable materials down other drains, Houchin said.

Still, in any county in the state, their tiny house would have to be hooked up to a septic system or a sewer system, and the smallest allowable septic system would be the size that serves a two-bedroom house. Also, according to Brown County rules, they wouldn’t be allowed to have a composting toilet as their only toilet. Those rules are in Brown County’s recently revised septic ordinance, which is coming up for a hearing next month before the Brown County Commissioners.

The APC talked briefly about making a special zoning district for tiny homes, or designating a pilot neighborhood for them, such as Helmsburg. But they didn’t want to make a decision on behalf of Helmsburg without having Helmsburg residents present.

Perhaps a bigger issue for most prospective residents is not the size of the house but the size of the lot required to build one.

On land zoned forest reserve, the smallest a buildable lot can be is 5 acres. Any home along a county road or state highway has to be built on at least 2 acres. A home built on land zoned general business or lake residence can be on as little a half-acre.

Harden said that allowing tiny homes only on FR-zoned land addresses the concerns from people who didn’t want to be able to see a tiny home right next door. Those parcels are over 300 feet from a road, he said.

However, that also forces the tiniest homes onto the largest lots.

Other county ordinances prohibit the idea of putting multiple tiny homes — or even a regular-sized home with a tiny home in the back yard — on the same piece of land, Ritzmann said.

Also, if people building tiny homes are doing it because it’s low-cost, requiring them to buy a large amount of property doesn’t help the cost of entry into Brown County’s housing market.

“We’ve got to work on the 5 acres. That sounds ridiculous,” said APC member Russ Herndon. He called the proposed home size changes a good first step.

The APC plans to focus discussion on lot sizes at the Feb. 27 work session.

“We definitely have to work on lot sizes, in regard to everything, not just tiny homes,” Harden said.