ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A campground in Elizabethtown is undergoing a transformation of sorts, one that will give it a unique selling point on the East Coast:
Its cabins will be tiny houses.
Tiny Estates will open with about half a dozen tiny houses this spring on the grounds of the former Ridge Run Campground. The Hobson family, which finalized the property’s purchase earlier this month, has long-term plans that include dozens more tiny homes, each with a slightly different design; a large event space; off-grid units; and typical campground amenities.
“We’re expecting a lot of millennials because it is sort of a novelty, a unique lodging experience,” Abby Hobson, who is developing Tiny Estates, said. “We can target someone who would come (to the area) every week or every month for lodging and want something different each time, and we expect a lot of ‘try before you buyers’ who want to test the (tiny house) experience in different models.”
The project is a good fit with what was there before it, said Justin Evans, Mount Joy Township manager and zoning officer. And it can be grandfathered in to the pre-existing use, so zoning wasn’t a hurdle the way it is in much of Lancaster County.
The foundation of Tiny Estates
So what is a tiny house?
Its size typically maxes out at 400 square feet. It’s built on a wheeled trailer, so it’s mobile. Beyond that, styles, locations, power and uses vary widely.
In this Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018 photo, Abby Hobson, who’s developing a new resort called Tiny Estates, comes down from the loft in one of the tiny homes on the property near Elizabethtown, Pa. (AP)
Hobson became interested in tiny houses a couple years ago and, after a family trip to the Tiny House & Simple Living Jamboree in Colorado, the Hobsons arrived home with an aluminum Volstrukt frame and plans to build one of their own.
“So we completed the shell and said, ‘Well, where do we put it?’ ” Hobson recalled. “We took it to an antiques store (that her parents, Dan and Joy Hobson, own) in Strasburg, but the township didn’t want it there. We tried to move it to several places, with the same result. So now I see people’s issue — it’s not that they can’t build them, it’s that (then) they don’t have somewhere to put them.”
That led to Hobson earning her real estate license to better figure out a solution, and that, eventually, led to the idea for a tiny house resort and the search for appropriate land.
The former campground already had some residents who were living full time in recreational vehicles — not typically an accepted use — as well as abandoned units. Those residents have moved out, Hobson said, and a 19th-century house and barn on the property, which no longer were usable, are being demolished.
By April, Hobson said, they hope to have the existing roads improved, trash cleared out, power pedestals updated or replaced, and spaces prepared for the Tiny Estates-owned tiny houses that will rent for about $135 a night.
There also will be other options. One will be dedicated space for people who already own a tiny house to bring it onsite and stay temporarily. Another will be a 50-50 arrangement: tiny homes owned by other people but maintained, cleaned and rented out by Tiny Estates, with the revenue split between the owner and the business. None of the options, though, involves full-time residency.
Lancaster’s tiny house hub
Hobson said Lancaster County is well-positioned to support not only Tiny Estates, but the tiny house trend as well.
“There’s a lot of local skill,” she said. “You might have a contractor in the family, and there are a lot of Amish” with strong construction skills.
When you go into a well-built tiny house, she said, “it’s built to the quality of a typical home, with the same supplies. Your plumbing and electric are a bit smaller … but your appliances and everything are standard size and quality. There’s insulation. They are a lot more livable full time.”
Hobson works out of the Leola offices of Neverwet, a company that develops water-repelling products; her father is a founding partner. The company building Tiny Estates’ initial lineup of six cottages, Liberation Tiny Homes, is just down the road. There, Marcus Stoltzfus, head of marketing and sales, said that even beyond the Tiny Estates contract, business is booming.
“We’re booked out solid until about July,” Stoltzfus said, adding that demand has been so great that the business’ focus this year will be on systemizing the company so operations can scale up without loss of quality.
With projects such as Tiny Estates, attention being paid to zoning issues and continued demand for tiny house designs and units, “This is a pivot for the industry as a whole. It’s moving forward,” Stoltzfus said.
A draft zoning amendment that would allow ‘accessory dwelling units’ — such as tiny houses — is in the works in East Lampeter
The term “accessory dwelling unit,” or ADU, refers to an approach used in many areas to regulate where tiny houses and other secondary, self-contained dwellings can be located. The units can take different forms, but essentially they are dwellings added to a lot that already contains another house.
Ethan Demme, an East Lampeter Township supervisor, has been working since last year on a draft zoning amendment that would remove many barriers to ADUs there. It was inspired, he says, by his work with Lancaster’s Coalition for Sustainable Housing and his experience with elder care housing ordinances such as those governing the separate residence, sometimes called the “dawdi haus,” some Amish families create for older family members.
“I started with the concept of how do we end the requirement that the person (living in an ADU) be related by blood, remove that to allow more people to take advantage of that possibility” of either setting up an ADU on their property or renting one.
Demme said he hopes to start getting public feedback on his draft ADU amendment this spring or summer.
