The City Council’s Housing Committee recently discussed the current ongoing work being done on the tiny house concept in the city. Brent Sheldon, R-Ward 1, and Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5, are pictured listening as Crystal Surdyk, center, discusses the program. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

Tiny homes could be coming to Jamestown.

The idea to begin building tiny houses in the city is something that has been in the works for a few years, and the City Council’s Housing Committee and Crystal Surdyk, city development director, have recently discussed the next steps for that concept.

Surdyk said the latest update is that what the tiny houses will look like in the zoning code has to be defined, but internal work has been being done in regards to meeting with the building and zoning code director, along with Surdyk’s team.

“We’ve been working over the last several years now with the land bank and putting together strategically the vacant parcels or parcels that have demolitions that we are in the process of,” Surdyk said. “So, we met on Friday with the landbank, Ellen Ditonto from the BPU, my team and we are, if you recall the software, data centralization platform that we have, Building Blocks, that pulls together information from a number of different sources. So it pulls GIS information, code enforcement information and a lot of different things.”

All of this together, Surdyk said, means the Building Blocks software is currently mapping out the city owned, JURA-owned and land bank-owned parcels that will be involved in this project. Additionally, she said they know the general areas that they will be targeting.

“We’ve been talking about doing infill, housing development, we’ve been talking with a number of different modular companies that are manufacturing modular homes,” Surdyk said. “So we’re looking at the different options, scale, size, all of those things and then also there’s a few different grant opportunities that we are looking at. So, we’ve kind of strategized for the last couple of years that we’ve been talking about it and I think we are pretty close to getting ready to say ‘Let’s start building’.”

Surdyk said next steps include looking at existing parameters as far as zoning goes, and once that is nailed down a pilot program will begin, allowing the department to try it out, get the pre-approval done and have the knowledge that it will look like what the zoning code specifies. The city’s zoning code is being updated while the city works on a new comprehensive plan.

“I think what we’ll do is we’ll make some recommendations and we’ll look at the different areas that we’re targeting,” Surdyk said. “So, for instance, that whole end of Cross Street. We’re looking at that as one potential redevelopment opportunity.”

Surdyk added that besides the empty parcel the project will also be looking for infrastructure and what that infrastructure looks like, such as needing new sidewalks or curbs or fixing the road. Councilman Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5 and chair of the Housing Committee, asked if the tiny houses needed to go in questionable neighborhoods or if nicer ones could be looked at as well. Surdyk said the idea is to do projects that are more rehabilitation focused, specifically looking at those questionable neighborhoods.

“The intent of rehab versus demo with those neighborhoods is because they haven’t transitioned yet to where we need to demolish things,” Surdyk said. “That’s where we’re investing more money into rehabilitation, in areas like that part of Cross Street, Fulton Street. We know that those areas and those houses in particular, it makes more financial sense to demolish those properties, give ourselves a clean slate and build new, and that will actually bring up those neighborhoods.”

The intent is to stabilize all of the city’s neighborhoods, Surdyk said, which does not mean they will not do a project in a better neighborhood. But city officials see the pilot program focusing on the neighborhoods that need more help and where they can get grant money. After the pilot program there will be the chance for other projects in other neighborhoods, following what will be put in the zoning law.

“It’s not going to be tomorrow but we’re excited that we’re this far and that we’ve got some good things on the horizon,” Surdyk said.