By Jennifer Brooks jennifer.brooks@startibune.com
The next big thing in Brainerd, Minn., might be very, very small.
Tiny houses — dwellings as small as 400 square feet — are on next month's City Council agenda. Right now, it's illegal to build that small in Brainerd, but supporters of the less-is-more school of home design say it's time to relax the city's zoning codes.
Tiny homes are trendy these days. New York recently legalized 275-square-foot apartments. Madison, Wis., plans to use tiny houses to shelter the homeless. The appeal of small spaces — less expensive to buy, less expensive to maintain — only increased after the recession and housing market collapse.
Brainerd is an older city and its neighborhoods are sprinkled with hundreds of oddly shaped lots that are too small to fit a regular house. Building smaller might solve two problems at once, said city planner Mark Ostgarden. Smaller houses could fit the vacant lots, while their smaller price tags might suit the budgets of retirees looking to downsize or young couples just starting out.
But there's small, and then there's too small. Critics and planners alike worry that if the city doesn't impose some standards, tiny houses could take a big bite out of neighborhood property values.
"Who's going to want a 400-square-foot house next to a 2,000-square-foot house?" Ostgarden said. "That's going to look like a storage building, or a dollhouse."
When the City Council debated lowering the current home size limit of 750 square feet in April, Council Member Gary Scheeler cast one of two opposing votes. The council will hold a final vote June 2.