A nonprofit's plan to build a village of tiny homes for people who have been homeless for years reaches the Denton Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday, Nov. 18, with city staff recommending approval.
The 1877 Journey is asking the city to rezone about 69.6 acres north of FM 1173, between the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks and Barthold Road, near the Krum city line. The project, called Community Forever Village, would allow up to 650 residences.
City reports say the land is part of a roughly 300-acre donation the nonprofit received from Hermann and Mary Barthold, with the rest of the acreage outside city limits in Denton's extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Two votes
Commissioners will hold two hearings. The first would change the city's future land use map for the site from Light Industrial to Community Mixed-Use. The second would replace the Rural Residential zoning with a planned development that creates a new land use the code does not have today: a "Communal Housing Village."
Under the proposed rules, homes could be as small as 120 square feet, grouped in clusters that share kitchens, bathrooms and gathering space. Park model RVs could also be used as permanent homes. Accessory uses would include a medical clinic, outdoor recreation and auto repair for skills training, and some retail spaces could be open to the public.
The applicant says it is modeling the village on Community First Village, which opened near Austin in 2015 and has since added phases.
There is no fixed phasing plan. According to the staff report, the nonprofit intends to start with one phase, bring residents in gradually and pay for many amenities through donations.
What staff found
Planning staff recommend approving both requests, with the zoning tied to approval of the land use change. Staff noted that when the idea first came up in 2024, commissioners preferred to leave the land use map alone and asked the applicant to make its own case.
The city's fiscal tool projects a net loss of about $6.38 million to the city over 40 years, though staff wrote that the model cannot account for any public savings if chronically homeless residents are housed in one supportive setting. A trip estimate puts added traffic at 3,126 vehicle trips a day, and staff point to TxDOT plans to widen Barthold Road to six lanes.
