Gainesboro’s Tiny Houses Up For Discussion Monday

The city of Gainesboro is facing push back from its community about a duplex tiny house being placed in its historical district.

Mayor Lloyd Williams said the lot owner on Murray Street was originally establishing a parking lot but shocked the city when he made plans to rent out dwellings on the property.

“We had a tiny house come in that was already here, and we went ahead and started an ordinance to try and keep it from growing,” Williams said. “This gentleman before we got the second ordinance read, decided to put in a tiny house.”

The board met Thursday to vote on an ordinance that would ban all homes 500 feet or smaller in the R1 district. But, a motion was not made after Resident Edward Anderson expressed concerns of the ordinance allowing for tiny houses larger than 500 feet.

“It would cost the city more if the value of that property is dropped,” Anderson said. “There are eight to ten houses down there, and all of them do not want the value of their property dropped because of this mess.”

The board recessed the meeting until Monday to increase the footage to 960 feet. Gainesboro Attorney Kayla Cantrell said since the lot owner started building infrastructure before the ordinance passed, the city can not stop him from moving forward.

“If we have had this in place, we could definitely do something,” Cantrell said. “It will prevent future people from placing these houses around town. As for as this guy, he is already in the process of it.”

Both Cantrell and Anderson said they would reach out to the land owner to try and postpone the tiny houses being installed.