Among other changes, a proposed amendment to Statesboro’s Unified Development Code would allow “tiny homes” as small as 400 square feet in certain areas. But pushback from builders and developers over a mandate for multi-unit townhomes to have fire sprinkler systems prompted City Council to delay action Tuesday.

When adopted by the council in September 2023, the Unified Development Code, or UDC, replaced the city’s old Zoning Ordinance and related regulations. Then the UDC underwent a few relatively small changes or corrections during the first year because of some things that had been overlooked.

Now the city’s Planning and Development Department, with some input from the Fire Department, is proposing several additional changes after seeing a rapid increase in development and a resurging number of variance requests.

“There are a number of changes included to try to address issues such as fire protection and things of that nature as we continue to grow,” Planning and Housing Administrator Justin Williams said Monday. “There are also some … administrative things that aren’t quite working, they’ve triggered variances, and that’s what we want to try to avoid with having a good, working code. So we’re removing some of those obstacles to development.”

With a housing boom that has led to roughly 1,500 housing units “going vertical” – in other words, actively under construction – in Statesboro as of this week, the city’s planners have encountered some situations they did not anticipate even two years ago when the UDC was being developed with help from consultants.

For example. the new code provided for mixed-use developments and even required space for neighborhood stores or restaurants within new residential neighborhoods that qualify as “planned unit developments,” or PUDs. But the city staff and consultants didn’t anticipate the size of PUD plans some developers would be bringing.

So, the requirement that at least 20% of the “gross floor area” of a PUD must be devoted to residential and at least 20% to “non-residential uses,” such as retail businesses or office buildings, would mean that at least two acres in a 10-acre development should be in non-residential buildings. But for a 100-acre PUD, this turns into a 20-acre “non-residential” requirement.

 “And you know, depending on how big you’re going in terms of your development, that (20%) could be the Publix shopping center, and we don’t think that’s fair. …,” Williams said. “I don’t think when we adopted the UDC we could have predicted the larger-scale development needs that were heading toward Statesboro. Nothing that large had happened, and now we’ve got multiple requests of that size.”

Without removing the basic 20% mandate, the proposed amendment inserts: “For developments exceeding 100 acres in size, the concurrency requirement is reduced to 10% of the gross floor area for both residential and commercial uses.”

Tiny homes

The provision for “tiny homes” was drawn up after some City Council members, beginning months ago, expressed interest in allowing these little houses – which have in recent years received media attention as a national trend – in Statesboro.

Before the UDC was adopted a year and a half ago, the smallest allowed size of a house in Statesboro’s city limits was 1,050 square feet. The UDC has allowed for houses as small as 750 square feet, potentially, in some areas.

Now, the newly proposed addition to the “definitions” section of the UDC defines “Dwelling: Tiny Home” as a building covering an area between 400 and 749 square feet, designed purely as a residence “and generally as part of a larger development containing common areas within the medium-density and high-density multi-family residential districts upon approval of a special use permit.”

Further, the definition specifically prohibits anything that qualifies as a recreational vehicle from being used as a tiny home and requires tiny houses to meet all applicable building codes the city has adopted. They would also have to meet the site requirements set forth in a section of the UDC that already allows for slightly larger “cottage court” houses.

Fire code mandate

A different section of the amendment would require that all townhome buildings and apartment buildings with more than two units, when newly built or undergoing substantial renovation or reconstruction, “be equipped with a sprinkler system that complies with the most current edition of the International Fire Code.”

This had been added at the request of Fire Chief Tim Grams and the Statesboro Fire Department, in an effort to make sure that all of the many townhome units now under construction offer proper fire protection, Williams said.

A city ordinance enacted in August 2022 defines townhomes as buildings containing from three to six homes, all with a ground floor and with shared walls between units. So the requirement would not apply to detached single-family houses or to duplexes, whether owner-occupied or rented.

When the currently proposed amendment package arrived at City Council during the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, meeting, Mayor Jonathan McCollar convened a public hearing as required for a first reading. Several representatives of housing developers or builders spoke of concerns about the sprinkler requirement.

The first was local attorney Steve Rushing, representing Horizon Homebuilders, which is currently developing Woodford Station subdivision.

“Our development is a townhome development, and most importantly, we are probably over half completed,” he said.

Of 172 units originally planned, 91 have already been permitted and framed, Rushing said, which would leave 81 more permits to be obtained.

He said he didn’t know where this would leave Horizon in regard to the remaining homes if the requirement were enacted, and that the firm’s management had only learned of the city’s pending action about 3 p.m. Tuesday.

“Just to remind you a little bit about the townhomes, ours particularly are stand-alone, platted single-family units. They’ll have independent electrical, independent plumbing,” Rushing continued. “There are several in a row, I think maybe six in a row, but they are each independent, platted units, and certainly these that we have going right now are not designed or engineered for the sprinkler system requirement.”

Adding sprinklers would require bringing in an engineer, and costs would be significant, Rushing said. The developer had already absorbed some costs of previous changes, he said, and reminded city officials that the council had reached out to homebuilders and added the ordinance allowing townhomes in the interest of creating “more affordable single-family housing.”

“Just from what we can look at, I think you may even take the townhome back out of the affordable category,” he said.

The townhomes are already being built with required firewalls and hard-wired smoke detectors with battery backups, he said, calling these “much more affordable.”

Haydon Rollins, an engineer from the Hussey Gay Bell company, said he wanted to echo what Rushing said and add something.

“We, as a company, do a lot of development all over Southeast Georgia, in a lot of different municipalities, and we have never seen this type of requirement,” Rollins said.

David Pearce of Pearce Building Systems and Marcus Toole from Habitat for Humanity of Bulloch County also spoke very briefly.

Assistant City Manager Jason Boyles suggested that the council could adopt the requirement with an exemption for “midstream development.”

Fire Chief Grams told the mayor and council that the SFD staff recommended the requirement out of concern that townhomes in Statesboro often become rentals, occupied by college students.

“Townhomes are being built but being utilized as apartments, and being catered to the Georgia Southern students,” he said, “Copper Beech was one of the very first ones that created some concerns for us. … It’s really just a proactive effort to keep this thing from spiraling out of control.”

He said his own local look at costs suggested that installing sprinklers is “comparable to upgrading countertops or flooring.”

McCollar said he wanted city staff to discuss the matter further with builders to hear their concerns.

“We’re not necessarily in a rush to push this through,” he said.

Council members agreed to postpone action without a motion or vote, and City Manager Charles Penny said the topic will be added to the mayor and council’s public work session in May.