Proponents say yurts can be adapted to be temporary or permanent living structures, which is part of the appeal (Photo: Felix Wong)
Elected leaders in Haines are weighing whether to restrict non-traditional dwellings like yurts and container homes within the townsite. The issue has sparked public debate around affordable housing, building standards and property values for adjoining homeowners. As KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports, the Haines Assembly is poised to vote at its Tuesday meeting.
A measure to restrict the types of residences in the townsite would do two things – one, it would define fabric-covered structures such as yurts and tepees, as well as container homes in borough code. And two, designate where they would be allowed in zones outside the townsite.
The measure was recommended by the Planning Commission in December by a 5-2 vote. Rob Goldberg has served on the commission since 2002 and says the question of the types of permitted housing has come up before.
He says the issue first came up in 2013, but was voted down by the assembly then. This year, he said it came up again in an effort to create a housing standard for the townsite, to allow only permanent housing.
“And so the question came up, why are we allowing tepees and wall tents and yurts as permanent residences, when we don’t allow mobile homes and RVs, to be lived in as a permanent residence?” Goldberg said. “And so we tried to bring the borough code up to a standard that said that if you’re going to build a home in the town site, it has to be of a permanent nature.”
Goldberg says the Planning Commission wants to incentivize building traditional structures and defining and restricting alternative housing like yurts is a step in that direction.
“What we’re doing is trying to just create a standard for building in the town site,” Goldberg said. “Because we don’t have a building code here. There’s no one that the borough hired to go out and enforce building codes. And so you can build pretty much anything. And we just decided that if we weren’t going to allow mobile homes and RVs to be used as a permanent residence, that we should set some sort of standard. And this definition does that.”
But the ordinance also restricts container homes and quote “Conex like” dwelling that can last, depending on conditions and maintenance up to 20 years. Goldberg says that was added in later, and likely because people don’t like their appearance.
“They’re not that attractive as a home, a lot of people wouldn’t want their neighbor to just plop a Conex on their property,” he said. “So I think the issue with the container homes is more anesthetic one rather than the issue of permanence.”
Existing yurts and container homes in the townsite would be grandfathered in. And they would still be allowed in zones outside of the townsite, a compromise introduced by Mayor Doug Olerud.
But for residents like Nick Schlosstein who moved to Haines with his partner about seven years ago, a yurt was a good housing option.
“It was affordable and fast,” says Schlosstein. They bought a parcel of land in a neighborhood just northwest of the Haines townsite, and put up a yurt in a few weeks. They lived there for five years.
“So we were able to purchase land and really be here permanently, rather than seeking out a renting, a rental agreement. Our intentions has always been to build a permanent structure on our land. But being able to build a long term, comfortable structure, like a yurt is what allowed us to move to Haines and relocate our business and life here.”
Schlosstein estimates the yurt cost about $22,000. The couple developed their business, Foundroot, which is a small farm and seed company. But they were suddenly evicted from the farm land they were renting in June 2021. Now, they live in a rental because they recently had a child, and they’re still saving up and planning to build a home on the site.
Under the new ordinance, yurts would still be permitted as temporary housing for up to eighteen months. But Schlosstein says that wouldn’t have been enough time to save up for building a home.
Supporters of the ordinance have also cited alternative housing like yurts could pull down adjoining property values. However, there is no data to prove this.
Planning Commissioner Rob Golderg says the commission has heard this concern too.
“I’m not a realtor, I don’t really know what the prices of homes are in Haines and whether that would devalue the property value. I think that might be a little bit of a subjective thing, too,” Goldberg said. “But that wasn’t the Planning Commission’s main concern with this ordinance. It was that, again, trying to create a standard for permanence for residents residences in the count site.”
Haines resident Erik Stevens built a yurt as a weekend space outside the townsite. He doesn’t see them as a nuisance. Rather…
“What I think devalues neighboring properties would be broken down vehicles, snow machines and people’s yards, (and) garbage,” Stevens said. “Honestly, I think what devalues properties is when people build a gigantic house and they don’t finish the siding and it stays Tyvek for a long time, that devalues properties. There are a lot of things that can devalue property and yurts are not one of them.”
Schlosstein, who until last year was a yurt resident, agrees. He says Haines borough could set policies to raise housing standards by drafting building codes.
“There’s a lot of non standard housing here,” Schlosstein said. “And so I do get the impulse to try to make housing more standard, so that people can, you know, get financing, which is also difficult on a lot of houses in town. But this just kind of seems like low hanging fruit and not particularly like, informed. It doesn’t seem like there was a problem that this is addressing.”
The Haines Assembly will weigh in on the measure and whether to prohibit yurts and container homes from the townsite at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Zoom details are here.
