Easily transportable homes could be a temporary solution to living in the floodplain. Monday evening Grand Forks City Council directed staff to move forward with a Temporary Use Permit Application for a tiny house on wheels. The location is 6379 12th Street.
Tiny homes are affordable, compact, can be constructed quickly, and moved to high ground during a flood event. As part of the application process, neighbours in the area will be notified and a public advertisement issued.
Councillor Julia Butler says it’s important to have a home for the winter. “A lot of people are living in fifth wheels not knowing what to do once the weather starts getting colder, so I think this is a great approach, that even if it’s just temporary, she can disconnect and move. I mean, the flood doesn’t come upon you in a day, she’ll see it coming, she’ll know at least a couple weeks in advance.”
Manager of Development and Engineering Dolores Sheets says tiny houses on wheels have been talked about for a while. “The concern of course is that they are going to be subject to flooding, so it was something that we had already considered was allowing tiny homes on wheels in the flood plain areas. We didn’t implement it with the last changes because we thought we needed a bit more time to work through it but then the flood brought this to the forefront.”
Councillor Beverly Tripp was concerned about the Flood Prevention Option of raising homes above the required flood level. “How many feet would Jennifer need to raise this in order to meet those rebuilding requirements if we allow this to go through?”
Councilor Neil Krog feels that shouldn’t be an issue and pointed out that the flood level hasn’t been set yet.
The Temporary Use Permit would expire after three years and can be renewed for another three. The $750 application fee would be waived as part of the City’s recovery program.