This lot on Seventh Street has a heated tarp covering on it, so that it could have had a tiny house built on it during the winter months.

A proposal to possibly build one, two, or more, tiny houses in Blue Earth came to an abrupt end during a two hour Blue Earth Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) meeting on Monday, Dec. 9.

The HRA had previously been studying a possible tiny house community of 11 homes that could be built on a large lot on 14th Street in Blue Earth.

The Blue Earth City Council had previously given the HRA permission to look at ways the project could be financed.

The HRA was also looking at possibly building one or two tiny houses on a lot on Seventh Street in Blue Earth that the HRA owns.

At Monday’s HRA meeting the board members discussed at length the pluses and minuses of building a tiny home. They had decided that they could possibly build just one tiny home on the Seventh Street lot, not two of them, as a test as to whether they could be rented or sold.

At one point in the meeting a motion was made by Blue Earth mayor and HRA board member Rick Scholtes to proceed with a plan to build one tiny house on the Seventh Street lot, with adding laundry units and a gravel driveway to the plan.

The motion failed to pass 3-2 with Scholtes and board member Kim Shaffer voting yes and board members Mark Maher, Dan Mensing and Ken Skaare all voting no.

A second motion to put the whole tiny house idea on hold passed 3-2 with Maher, Mensing and Skaare voting yes and Scholtes and Shaffer voting no.

At the beginning of the 12 noon meeting, four Blue Earth residents were present and spoke against the tiny house idea during the public comment portion of the meeting.

One person said the city needs to look at keeping businesses and getting new businesses and not spending taxpayer dollars on tiny houses.

HRA members explained they work with housing issues, and it is the Economic Development Authority that works with keeping businesses and helping new businesses.

Mayor Scholtes explained that the HRA already owns the lot, and the HRA also has $150,000 in housing development funds that would be used to build the tiny house. He also pointed out the need for housing.

“There are 27 people on a waiting list to get into Crescent Apartments,” Scholtes said. “And those apartments are only 325 square feet. The tiny house will be 450 square feet.”

HRA member Dan Mensing pointed out that the HRA has been involved in tearing down old houses that cannot be fixed up.

“We have created about 20 vacant lots, so what should we do with them?” he questioned. “They are small, 60-foot wide and a new, larger house will not fit on them.”

One resident said he thought the whole city should be able to vote on whether to have tiny houses or not. HRA members responded that is not the way things are done.

“We are tasked with helping create affordable housing,” HRA chairman Skaare said. “That is what we are trying to do here.”

Another resident, who lives near the Seventh Street lot, questioned why the neighbors were not notified of a possible tiny house being built there.

HRA board members said no notice is sent out when anyone is building a house anywhere in town, unless they need to get a variance for a set back.

During the main part of the meeting the HRA board discussed the tiny houses again at length.

After much discussion, the board first voted to stop the process of looking for funding options for the large 14th Street proposed project.

Then, they debated the Seventh Street single house proposal.

First they decided to go with one house, not two. Next they proposed adding a space for a laundry unit. Then they decided to add a driveway and leave space for a possible garage to be built in the future.

After the motion to do that failed to pass, the HRA continued to discuss the pros and cons of tiny houses.

Before the second motion, which was to put the whole idea of building tiny homes in Blue Earth on hold was voted on, Mensing said the motion “means not now, but not forever.”

In other business at the meeting, the HRA heard a presentation on a recent Blue Earth Housing Survey that was conducted by two students at Minnesota State University – Mankato.

Katelynne Kratz and CJ Betcher presented the results of the survey that was taken both online and in person at the BE Welcoming bonfire event.

They had 148 responses to the survey. They found that the median rent in Blue Earth is $673 per month, and the median amount a homeowner spends is $911 per month on a mortgage.

At the end of their report, the two had several suggestions for actions the city could take for housing development.

One was to promote more multi-family units. Another was to convert some housing into duplexes, with rental assistance or incentives. A third was first-time home buyers incentives and down payment assistance. The other two also had to do with other incentives and aligning housing development with the local job market.

After their regular meeting, the HRA board then met as a Crescent Apartments meeting. The HRA owns and operates the Crescent Apartments.