An innovative tiny home development could be making its way into Okotoks’ Kinsmen Park by 2020. Earlier this year, the Town was approached by Vagabond Tiny Homes with a concept that would have 32 tiny homes of three different types: affordable housing rental units, market-rate rental units and short-term vacation rental units. It would also include a central building at its centre that would include share spaces to supplement tiny home living – a commercial kitchen, dining and gathering space, workspaces and storage lockers. It would also accommodate public bookings. Dawn Smith, Okotoks environment and sustainability co-ordinator, said the “village centre” aspect of the project was most appealing to the Town. “What we love about it is it’s not just for the people who live in the village, but there will be programing and rental space for the community at large in this central building,” said Smith. She said the village centre would also be beneficial to tiny home residents in the winter, when it’s more difficult to be outside. There were two other aspects that attracted the Town to the project: Vagabond was bringing with it funding through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Affordable Housing Innovation Fund, and the eco village would provide a model for fitting tiny homes into municipal developments. “They typically are on wheels, they don’t fit into traditional land uses and there are a lot of municipal issues with people parking them in backyards or in other locations they don’t belong,” said Smith. “The developers would like to see municipalities test this out first, and our intent is to show how these can be integrated into land use and be built in an efficient manner so it can be replicated.” Right now, tiny homes don’t meet building code requirements because they’re too small, she said. The Town will have to cut some red tape to allow for the tiny home development, similar to changes that had to be made to accommodate the solar neighbourhood development in Drake Landing. “That’s why Okotoks was also chosen, because we’ve historically been able to do those kind of innovative projects where we all sit down together and figure things out,” said Smith. There were some requirements that came along with accepting the project, including the fact the Town had to provide at least three acres of municipally-owned land for the building site, she said. The Town of Okotoks owns little land and looked at its park sites. The old creamery site was considered but being in the flood plain, it was not ideal for building homes, she said. After looking at the number of bookings on Town-owned playing fields, it was determined Kinsmen Park, at the end of McRae Street, would be the best choice. In 2017 the field showed only 63 booked hours, compared to well over 150 and up to 260 hours on other fields, she said. At the same time, fields at Westmount School, St. Mary’s School and Air Ranch were not booked at all. “There’s lots of space to move to, so while it’s unfortunate we’re losing a field there is capacity to move these 63 hours to another location,” said Smith. “And the village would include other green space and social amenities.” Vagabond has proposed enhancing the community garden with an outdoor greenhouse for year-round growing, and a children’s play space for little ones, she said. No decisions will be made without public input, she said. First, the Town and Vagabond will be meeting on Aug. 23 with stakeholders like Okotoks Minor Soccer and the Healthy Okotoks Coalition, which runs the community garden, as well as area residents to discuss the proposed plans. The public can ask questions or raise concerns about the eco village during ChiliFest on Aug. 25, she said. Coun. Tanya Thorn, who has been talking about diversifying housing options in town and introducing tiny homes for years, said she’s pleased to see the proposal come to Okotoks – though there is still quite a process to go through. “There are some land-use changes that have to happen, there is public consultation,” said Thorn. “There are still some elements that need to happen, but I think the concept itself is definitely something our community needs. We need to be looking at alternate housing.” She said tiny homes allow the community’s youth to rent or buy an affordable home in their hometown, and the village would also provide much-needed public rental space. It also enhances the community feel in Okotoks, she said. “We all drive home, drive into our garage, close the garage door, go into our house, and drive out of the garage the next day,” said Thorn. “We don’t interact with our neighbours. This community is going to really create the opportunity for people to get to know each other and build good community bonds.” Bringing in a project like the eco village could help change the way developers look at designing future new neighbourhoods, she said. While traditional single-family homes aren’t going anywhere, she said integrating something new opens the community up to more people with different incomes or lifestyles.
