On Aug 1st Lindsay & Jess Watt owners of a Tiny Home on Wheels and residing in Port Hope presented their delegation to The Committee of the Whole requesting the existing Mobile Dwelling Unit By-law Inclusion in the Definition of ARU's and Associated By-laws.
The attached picture is a letter from Jason Williams the Director of Protective Services and Emergency Management for the Municipality of Port Hope informing their landlord of the leased land and them being the tenants of the formal outcome from the direction of the Municipal Council.
In summary for background, the land the Watt's are leasing to park their Tiny Home on Wheels is a vacant lot, but commercially zoned for possible commercial/residential development, and currently The Municipality of Port Hope does not allow permanent dwelling of a mobile home of any kind in any of the Municipalities zonings.
However, in the case of the Watt's, they did seek permission in advance from the planning department, and due to the Planning Department's oversight allowed the Watt's to inhabit the land with their home. This was until a single complaint from an unknown community member was made directly to By-law enforcement in April 2023, and after the Watts had lived in the home for over nine months; which resulted in a By-law infraction letter subject to fines to the landlord if the Watt's did not vacate and remove their tiny home on wheels.
After trying to work with the Planning Department to remain on a commercial lot, the high cost associated with rezoning was not an option for either the landlord or the tenants (the Watts) to afford. They also would not be in compliance to turn the home into a business on this commercially zoned land due to commercial dwelling bylaws in relation to the layout of their home not aligning. As such the Watts were facing homelessness and no legal way to remain living at a new location within the Municipality of Port Hope.
This is when the Watts prepared a presentation and submitted a delegation to present to The Committee of The Whole Aug 1st 2023 requesting the existing Mobile Dwelling Unit By-law inclusion in the existing definition of ARU's (Additional Residential Units) and Associated By-laws, and with this inclusion thereby effectively allowing Tiny Homes on Wheels that are CSA certified legal within the Municipality of Port Hope.
The picture of the letter from Jason Williams attached outlines the compassion and innovative forward-thinking of the Municipal Council to pass with a unanimous vote to:
"further review the Municipal Zoning Bylaws related to ARU’s and the associated Bylaws, the work will be undertaken over the course of the next 9 months (approximation), and until this work has been completed and approved by council the compliance date in relation to the removal of the dwelling located at 2 Madison Street has further been extended to March 31, 2024, or within 30 days of the zoning Bylaw review being completed and approved by council.
This timeline will hopefully allow the tenants occupying the property to find a suitable location to place their dwelling within the Municipality as the current location is zoned Commercial and there is no evidence to suggest that after the further review of the Zoning Bylaw that a dwelling would be permitted on commercially zoned properties within the Municipality.
Our team is dedicated to continuing to work towards a strategy dealing with attainable and affordable housing within the Municipality of Port Hope, and in conjunction with internal and external stakeholders the Municipal Zoning Bylaw will be reviewed and amended as required to further support this identified area of need within our communities."
The Watts are of course grateful to the Municipal Council for extending the timeline to vacate and allowing them to remain in their home until Tiny Homes on Wheels are legalized within the Municipality of Port Hope. Moreover, as advocates of the Tiny Home movement as a viable affordable housing and affordable home ownership solution without the use of taxpayers dollars, which also provides economic growth to homeowners for rental income and thereby economic growth for the communities where they are legalized, the Watts are overjoyed with the Municipal Council's decision.
This is echoed in Lindsay Watt's presentation's closing remarks, "understanding that this is an opportunity and not an issue, although our issue has brought it forth to be an opportunity."
The full presentation and delegation on video can be viewed at the following link: https://youtu.be/TWZGdVCotVI?t=685
Lindsay Watt is a member of The Tiny Home Industry Association (THIA) https://tinyhomeindustryassociation.org THIA is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization on a mission to advocate for regulation changes, develop industry best practices and construction standards, all to increase widespread use of tiny homes as permissible and permanent housing.