Ottawa County housing commission readies open‑source small‑home package to push zoning changes

The Ottawa County Housing Commission on a recent meeting outlined steps to publish a package of open‑source small‑footprint house plans, pursue local zoning pathways and community outreach, and support pilot projects intended to prove the concept to townships and developers.

The package is intended to make architected house plans — ranging from roughly 440 square feet to about 1,056 square feet — available to residents, contractors and developers while the county and project partners work with municipalities to overcome zoning barriers that currently limit smaller units.

Matt, a project presenter for the small‑footprint effort, said the team has prepared four plan footprints and “we have 4 different sizes of, home plans that we're producing that will be open source.” He told the commission the plans have been reviewed with local code officials and that an energy study is being pursued to clear another compliance box: “the last hurdle that we're working to get over right now is, getting an energy study done for all the plans.”

David Rosnick, executive director of Lakeshore Habitat, gave a public‑comment update on partner projects tied to the county's housing work, saying Jubilee had “framed in their first 3 year townhome and…