Peoria council debates tiny-home villages for unhoused; majority asks for more policy detail before zoning changes

Peoria City Council members on Tuesday discussed city staff recommendations to allow temporary tiny-home shelters in specified zoning districts as one tool to serve people experiencing homelessness, but declined to make immediate code changes and asked staff for more detailed policy work.

Director of Community Development Michael Doolin (title per transcript) told the council that, if the city pursues the option, his staff would recommend adding a “transient lodging” definition to the zoning code, allowing transient lodging as a permitted or special use in R-5 through R-8 multifamily residential and in CN and C-1 commercial districts, and adding specific performance standards. "If you do, ... it would be to add the definition of transient lodging, within our planning I mean, our zoning code, amend the permitted use to allow transit lodging and special uses in r 5 through r 8, multifamily residential, c n and c 1, and then add specific performance standards around there," Doolin said.

Doolin and staff said the city’s current building code does not permit the pallet-style shelters being proposed (they lack plumbing), so both zoning and building-code amendments would be required to allow them. Staff also proposed moving any ordinance changes through the Planning and Zoning Commission, which would include public hearings and neighborhood notice. Corporation counsel said establishing the use as a special use would mean the city has defined it as allowable in specific districts subject to conditions, and council retains limited discretion when deciding individual special-use applications.

Council discussion was lengthy and at times pointed. Council member Riggenbach supported proceeding to Planning and Zoning with standards, stressing performance standards — separation, screening, maximum unit counts and required supportive services — and noting the approach would still allow the council to deny specific special-use requests. Mayor Rita Ali and several other councilmembers said they wanted a fuller policy session, more detail about possible sites in Peoria and clearer information about how proposed pallet shelters would function locally before authorizing code changes. Several members said they worried such facilities would concentrate services downtown or in particular neighborhoods.

Council members also raised design and space concerns. Staff described the pallet-shelter model discussed by providers as units roughly 70 square feet with shared sanitation and meal services; Doolin said the city’s building code currently allows some dwellings of about 120 square feet under limited circumstances, which differs from the pallet-shelter concept. Council members cited Bloomington’s larger project — an approximately $2.5 million development for about 50 units, with estimated annual operations around $1 million — as an example of a different scale and funding approach.

After discussion, the council voted unanimously to receive and file the staff report and directed staff to return with more detailed policy options and site information for a future session.