BOWDEN - Two developers who want to develop 14 tiny homes in property adjacent to the Bowden Hotel met with council on Nov. 26.
Lindsay and Lucas Brann, who live south of Innisfail, say the energy-efficient homes would range from 384 square feet to about 500 square feet, including one-bedroom loft units and two-bedroom models.
The goal is to price them starting from under $100,000 so young people and those making minimum wage as well as retirees could afford them.
"A minimum wage full-time worker can own their own home. And your mortgage payment, at a minimum amount down, you're just over $500 a month," Lucas said.
"The efficiency of them, your power and gas shouldn't be through the roof, they should be very affordable as well."
The concept was first presented to council in October.
At that time, councillors said they liked the idea, but aren't sold on the location, because it's currently zoned commercial. They made that same point during the Nov. 26 meeting.
Also if this development goes ahead, it would border Highway 2A. Council says the Ministry of Transportation will not allow cars to be parked along there.
"We had a guy who wanted to put a grocery store in there quite a few years ago and they said they wouldn't allow vehicles to be long-term parked there, so they moved to Penhold," Mayor Robb Stuart said.
In addition, Lucas proposed providing access to the homes off the alley. That also posed a problem, according to Stuart.
"Our bylaw doesn't allow for alley access," he said. "We might look at changing that — depending on how many cars you're trying to squeeze in there."
So councillors tried to persuade the Branns to locate the development in residential property elsewhere in the town.
However, Lindsay said they had checked out other potential properties and they're too expensive to enable them to meet the $100,000 target price for the homes.
Lindsay said she and Lucas got the idea for the project when their 19-year-old son expressed interest in buying his own home but could not afford the down payment; nor could the Branns afford to help him out.
"What do you do for somebody like that when they've got ambition," Lindsay asked. "We know he's not alone. We know he's one of so many people.
"But we have a whole generation of kids who are coming up. We have a whole lot of people who — we've had a really tough economy and people coming out of that — it just reaches so many people," she added.
Lucas confirmed the proposed homes are not mobile or pre-made homes. They'll be built on a foundation.
"I'm strongly in support of this concept," Coun. Paul Webb said. "I'm really struggling to reconcile that location, honestly, because it is currently deemed a commercial property. It's not a 'no,' but I'm wrestling with that a lot. I do want to see that happen."
In the end, after an approximately 40-minute discussion, council voted to have Red Deer County planner Connie Sloan meet with the Branns and "come back to us with some ideas how something might actually work."
