During Monday’s Sikeston City Council meeting, Council voted to amend city code to eliminate allowing tiny homes.

Tiny homes apply to houses that are 400-square-feet in area or less and under the code were allowed in R-3 zoned areas of the city. Sikeston Community Development Director Barry Blevins said the code posed several issues, including people putting sheds on their property and living in them.

He said some of the challenges of the code are that the structures are not regulated by the Missouri Public Service Commission. The inspections of the homes were to prebuilt homes and officials are not able to see behind walls to see if they were built correctly.

There are also no restrictions as to heat, air, and other equipment requirements.

Instead of allowing the tiny homes as written in the code, Blevins said he and his staff wanted to step back and come up with a better solution.

“We want to introduce something that is a little more refined,” Blevins said. “Do we want to see a bunch of storage buildings for people to live in? I don’t think that’s a good solution to our housing crisis.”

Blevins said they want to work on a new code that will still allow for affordable housing in smaller homes, but where they are built to certain specifications.

“We want to have something that is more sustainable than just a storage building,” Blevins said.