Tiny-house builder wants big change to zoning laws

Saskatoon developer Andrew Machnee thinks the future of infill in the city comes in a 228-squarefoot package, like the one he’s building in Caswell Hill.

Machnee trumpets the project as the city’s first permanent tiny house in an effort to try to convince city hall to change zoning laws to allow as many as five such dwellings on a single lot. The front door leads into a combined kitchen and living room with a bedroom and bathroom in the back half. That’s it, other than a crawl space under the house. It has no basement.

The space seems roomier than it might appear because the ceiling reaches 12 feet at its peak. The bedroom can accommodate a queensize bed, but barely. A washer and dryer will fit into the bathroom, which features a full-sized tub.

“I’d love to be able to start building these communities, but the city won’t let me,” Machnee said in an interview.

The City of Saskatoon’s director of planning and development, Lesley Anderson, said a batch of tiny houses on one lot is not out of the question, although it would likely require a zoning change in the city’s older neighbourhoods.

“We’d be open to considering the right location for that kind of use, a tiny community,” Anderson said in an interview.

The city would look at several factors when considering such a proposal, including proximity to other homes in the area, Anderson said.

Saskatoon’s newer neighbourhoods include zoning that allows for four-plex and six-plex developments, but older neighbourhoods mainly feature zoning only for single-family homes or duplexes, she said.

“In our newer neighbourhoods, we have lots of zoning that would permit this.”

Machnee’s main interest, however, is infill development.

“I think everyone in the city wins with infill,” he said.

Smaller homes are energy efficient, Machnee noted. The home he is building on Avenue F North requires just an 8,000 BTU electric heater instead of a furnace.

The city can collect more property tax from multiple houses on one lot compared to a single house on the same property, he said.

Adding a new component to the mix for affordable housing ranks as another advantage, Machnee said. He estimated a house like the one he’s building would only cost about $100,000.

“There’s a lot of people who wish they could take that step, but they can’t because the city won’t allow it,” he said.

Machnee Developments Inc. is building the tiny house in Caswell Hill on a parcel of land owned by nearby St. Vincent of Lerins Orthodox Church. Machnee plans to finish it in about a month and rent it out in the fall. It costs about $30,000 to build and is about onequarter the size of the house located directly south of it.

Machnee said he’s confident the house is the first of its kind in Saskatoon. Anderson said she could not confirm that because the city does not limit how small a house can be.

“We don’t require a certain size of house,” she said. “We have a maximum, but we don’t have a minimum.”