Minimum Space Requirements

England must instruct each major city to designate an area for small houses with communal and independent bathrooms and kitchen units. They must also force planning boards to accept prefabricated homes (regulated for safety and insulation minimum standards) that are allowed to sell for up to 1/3 of the annual income of a full-time employee they buy. Developers should be forced to build 1 church for 3 normal houses and mix them up, not get. Houses should be built as terraces above garages, as we do not have enough parking spaces in the UK; Homes should have space and openings for future domestic elevators for disabled or aging residents. Homes should have roof gardens if there is no space for back gardens. a) Each motorhome used for sleeping must have at least 80 square feet of floor space for each occupant, with a maximum of four occupants per car. At least a 7-foot ceiling, measured at the entrance of the car, must be present. However, minimum space standards have their detractors. Vera Kichanova argued in a recent article for the Adam Smith Institute that “microhousing” is the right choice for some people. And urban economist Alain Bertaud compares them to caloric needs – trying to use them to address a housing shortage is like trying to “solve a famine” by passing a law that everyone must eat 2,000 calories a day instead of just producing more food.

Despite the fact that a precedent has only recently been set, many municipalities have required minimum acreages of 20,000, 40,000 square feet, one, two and even five acres and more for many years. The table below summarizes some of the large lot size requirements in some zoning ordinances. As you can easily see, only a tiny fraction of these requirements have ever been litigated. The American Public Health Association recently published a model regulation proposing higher spatial standards than those contained in the above-mentioned orders. The Health Committee`s draft Housing Ordinance, Regulatory Provided Facilities, Maintenance and Occupancy of Dwellings and Housing Units, published in 1952 by the American Public Health Association, Inc., New York, lists the following minimum standards: This decision is relevant not only to the views expressed on economic segregation, but also to two other important statements. The first was a flippant comment that “there seems to be no doubt that the municipality could require a minimum of living space in all apartments in the community (emphasis ours) as long as it is reasonable.” If this view is accepted by the courts and it is possible to determine the reasonableness of defining the minimum that goes beyond the accepted requirements of the Health Act, the minimum size requirements may be maintained more frequently in the future. A second important statement concerned the legality of rolling regulations. The court said: However, a look at space by no one only shows how people currently consume housing. It does not show the size of new and existing homes, or whether space standards affect supply. It is interesting to compare the minimum dimensions of the buildings that the committee considered legally enforceable with the minimum requirements proposed in their volume via the standards, habitat planning for occupancy. It was published in 1950 by the Chicago Department of Public Administration.

In this volume, the Housing Health Committee has not dealt with enforceable minima, but with “desirable” minima. In the words of the committee, minimum space standards also appear to limit the supply of housing in London. Although 17% of new housing in London is below the standard of 50 m² for two people of one bedroom (which is different from the norm for a person of 37 m²), the same is true for 23% of existing housing in the capital. The defense argued that property values would be damaged due to the appearance of the smaller homes and the type of people they were likely to occupy. Other points were that taxes paid for low-cost homes would not be sufficient to cover the cost of municipal services and that small houses were not conducive to physical or mental health. It was also noted that about eighty of New Jersey`s 300 zoning ordinances include minimum building size requirements. An appeal is pending against this case. Below is the minimum house size allowed in each state. Certain minimum house sizes apply to tiny homes as Supplemental Housing Units (ADUs). Tiny home regulations cannot be specified below, but all tiny homes must meet the minimum requirements above.

Farmington, Connecticut, passed a zoning ordinance in 1950 that included the following requirements. All single-family homes must be at least 650 square feet, but two-storey single-family homes must have 570 square feet on the first floor. Two-family homes must have a minimum square footage for each family of 525 square feet for a three-room apartment and 650 square feet for a four-bedroom apartment. For each additional room in the apartment of more than four, 120 square meters must be added to the minimum requirements. Typical is the clause that “in the computer area for living rooms, basements, rooms for heaters, halls, stairs and open or closed verandas can not be included”. Some may respond that it is wrong for people to live in small houses. But is that the case? Philosophically, what right do others have to insist that people buy more homes than they actually want? Houses smaller than the current minimum space standards are the right choice for some people, and they should be allowed to live as they wish, even in homes of 8 to 9 m². (b) A bed, bed or bunk for each occupant and suitable lockable storage space, such as a lockable closet, or space for a lockable foot locker for each resident`s clothing and personal belongings, shall be provided in each room used for sleeping. Except where partitions are provided, these beds or similar devices shall not be placed laterally more than 36 inches by more than 36 inches (except for rail-mounted modular units, where the beds shall not be less than 30 inches, and for highway trailers, where the beds shall not be less than 26 inches) and 30 inches next to each other. of others from start to finish. and must be at least 12 inches off the ground. Bunk beds, multi-storey bunk beds and similar multi-storey facilities cannot be used.

Based on a detailed analysis of space requirements for domestic activities and equipment, the committee developed the following room standards for families of different sizes. For the family of one, an apartment with 400 square meters of floor space is desirable. A family of two needs a residential unit with 750 square metres of usable space; A family of three needs 1,000 square feet of floor space; a family of four, 1,150 square metres; a family of five, 1,400 square metres; and a family of six, 1,550 square feet. These standards provide an interesting comparison between legally binding health requirements and commodity-based requirements and a new interpretation of health. (See Lionshead Lake Inc. v. Wayne Township, Passaic County, New Jersey Superior Court, April 27, 1951, discussed below.) Most states have adopted International Residential Code (IRC) building and zoning codes. IRC codes require that all homes be built at least 320 square feet. The minimum square footage of a house is 120 square feet and at least one room must be habitable.

Living rooms comply with other regulations, such as a closet and at least one window. Other rooms that are not intended for sleeping must have an area of at least 70 square meters. Bathrooms and kitchens do not have a minimum square footage; However, all rooms must have a ceiling height of at least seven to eight feet. However, minimum home sizes vary widely between states, cities, and counties. Some areas require new homes to be at least 1,000 square feet. As mentioned above, some States have adopted the IRC Code; However, some counties, cities, and neighborhoods have adopted their own bylaws. When building a house, one should always check with the local jurisdiction to determine the minimum requirements. Some places do not have minimum size restrictions.

There are several bases on which proponents of minimum building size regulations rely. First of all, the minimum size of the building is directly related to health and, therefore, its regulation is rightly a matter of police violence. The second is that while a minimum apartment size of perhaps four or six hundred square feet cannot be justified on the basis of physical health alone, it can be justified based on its relationship to overall health – both physically and emotionally. It is said that a community has the right to demand a minimum standard of decent housing in the community based on a broad interpretation of health. To go further, a large minimum building size can be supported because it “preserves the character of the neighborhood”. This is an argument for “convenience,” similar to that used by proponents of architectural control.