Rock Falls to vote on allowing construction of ‘tiny homes’

ROCK FALLS – The tiny house movement is about to make its first tiny footprint in Rock Falls.

The City Council will vote Tuesday on an ordinance that will allow the construction of “compact residential dwellings,” homes with a ground floor as small as 400 square feet, on lots as small as 55 feet wide.

The lower limit now is 800 square feet.

The change will accomplish two things, city building inspector Mark Searing said: It will make it easier for people to afford to build, buy or rent in a market where the average cost to build a new single-family home can be $300,000 or more, and it will allow the city to get small empty lots off its hands and back on the tax rolls.

Many such sites are in the older part of town, Searing said, the result of fires or decrepit houses the city obtained and demolished.

“To put a house on a lot that size is almost impossible,” he said, adding that the Sauk Valley Landlords Association is in favor of the change, and estimates the average cost of a tiny house would be about $60,000.

The size of the dwelling would be the only change coming. Tiny-house builders still must adhere to building codes and connect with city utilities.

This would be a feature unique to Rock Falls. Neither Sterling nor Dixon allow homes that small, and have no plans to change their codes, officials there said.

The tiny house movement is trending across the country, however, and “we’ve had some interest for quite a period of time now,” Searing said.

In fact, former area resident Sarah Martin, now of Florida, helped spark this change when she came to the city recently with hopes – and plans in hand – to build her own tiny house that she would use when she is back in the area visiting her grandkids, Searing said.

Rock Falls doesn’t seem to see any downside to the downsizing.

“We want to get [those empty lots] back in private hands,” Searing said.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers at 603 W. 10th St. Go to rockfalls61071.net for an agenda, which will be posted by Friday afternoon.