Have you heard of the Lake Dallas Tiny Home Village? It’s the first of its kind urban tiny house community, located in a quaint small town downtown in the northern Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Importantly, the layout sets this apart from other parks and villages. As a pocket neighborhood, all the parking is on the outer edge of the community. The tiny houses all face an open communal courtyard.
All the residents agree that it is a truly wonderful place to call home. They’re a diverse mix of families, singles, and couples. Lake Dallas Tiny Home Village is the kind of place where kids can roam free under the caring and watchful eye of all the tiny house neighbors. They enjoy a playground across the street, in addition to the community’s backyard and courtyard space. Of course, the grown-ups appreciate those spaces too. This includes impromptu social gatherings and additional work from home space on the many picnic tables and the communal laundry building.
Lake Dallas Tiny Home Village Amenities:
- Shared green space in the backyard and courtyard (a grassy area that doubles as a fire lane via Grasscrete)
- Trash & recycling
- Storage units
- Landscaping
- Firepit and picnic tables
- Community garden
- Washateria with 4 NON-coin operated washers & dryers, a utility sink, shared tools, and a large multipurpose table
- Walking distance to the lake, coffee shops, restaurants, library, business center & more
Life inside this Urban Tiny House Community
“The Lake Dallas Tiny Home Village is what I consider an urban village. So it’s inside the city, and we’re inside the downtown area. Main Street is two blocks away. We can walk there in three minutes. There are good things about that because you can walk to everything that you need. As opposed to a village that’s further out.
Now a village further out is going to have bigger lots, more space. We’re tight in here; the homes are within probably 12-15 feet of each other. Some people don’t particularly care for that. But when you’re in a downtown area, you’re an urban area; you have to have some density. We still have open areas, so it doesn’t feel cramped.”
-Terry Lantrip, long-time Lake Dallas resident, Urban Retro CEO & LDTV developer
LDTHV is a groundbreaking residential urban tiny house community because it uses the International Residential Code (IRC) Appendix Q for homes on wheels. That means that these homes are inspected and permitted as residential dwellings. Even though this model building standard is intended for foundation-based tiny houses, the city of Lake Dallas utilized it for movable tiny houses, from the trailer up. From there, they created the legal guidelines around the placement of those in the LDTHV pocket neighborhood, zoned as a PUD (planned unit development). For instance, the homes must be tied down, skirted, and inspected by a third-party inspector or certification company.
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