The Village of East Troy Plan Commission discussed potential zoning changes to allow tiny homes in residential districts but agreed to leave the zoning code unchanged for now while keeping the topic available if developers express interest.

Village planner Oren summarized a staff memo and national planning guidance. He said tiny homes typically are considered single-family dwellings of roughly 400 square feet or less and can be either chassis-mounted (mobile) or set on a foundation. Oren said the village’s zoning already allows accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and an alternative cottage-housing option that permits smaller units than a conventional single-family home.

Oren explained the current residential baseline: a new single-family home must meet a 1,000-square-foot minimum; an accessory dwelling unit is allowed as an accessory use and “shall not exceed 75% of the principal dwelling’s floor area up to a maximum size of 700 square feet,” which could accommodate a 400-square-foot unit if the principal dwelling is large enough. The cottage-housing option allows units as small as 650 square feet. Oren said the only place that currently allows chassis-mounted (mobile) units is the village’s mobile-home district, which applies to a single property in the village.

Commissioners raised practical barriers: fire-code occupancy and building-code matters to be checked by the building inspector; financing and mortgage availability for buyers of very small units; and whether tiny-home villages should be owner-occupied or rental, noting examples from Wisconsin where nonprofit groups developed tiny-home villages for veterans.

Oren described two Wisconsin examples: a denser Racine tiny-home village and a Green Bay example located near a county mental-health facility on donated land. He said both were nonprofit-managed projects targeted to veterans. A commission member said she would not favor chassis-mounted tiny homes and expressed a preference for foundation-mounted units.

Commissioners and staff noted limited local demand to date: the cottage-housing option and ADU rules have been on the books and have seen little uptake locally, and financing remains a principal barrier. One commissioner said the research is useful as background in case a developer proposes a project, but recommended keeping the code as written until there is demonstrated demand or a developer-led proposal. The commission agreed and took no immediate action to amend the zoning code.