Chattanooga ministry's attempt to build low-cost homes on farm land sparks controversy

Rev. Barry Kidwell and his daughter, Kathleen, feed rabbits at the farm owned by Mustard Tree Ministries. Kidwell is seeking a planned unit development to build 32 tiny houses to rent for his homeless ministry.
Rev. Barry Kidwell and his daughter, Kathleen, feed rabbits at the farm owned by Mustard Tree Ministries. Kidwell is seeking a planned unit development to build 32 tiny houses to rent for his homeless ministry.
photo Rev. Barry Kidwell and his daughter, Kathleen, feed rabbits at the farm owned by Mustard Tree Ministries. Kidwell is seeking a planned unit development to build 32 tiny houses to rent for his homeless ministry.

A homeless ministry wants to use a Snow Hill farm on which it raises vegetables, chickens and rabbits to also help build a community of tiny homes to provide low-cost housing and food for those rebuilding their lives.

"This would provide a great opportunity for people who are working and needing affordable housing to be able to live in a community of tiny homes and perhaps also work on our farm to get healthy food," said the Rev. Barry Kidwell, a United Methodist pastor who heads Mustard Tree Ministries in Chattanooga.

But many Ooltewah area residents want local planners to block any building of the small, 300-square-foot homes along Snow Hill Road. A 6-year-old community group known as the Ooltewah Citizens for Responsible Growth is petitioning county planners to reject Kidwell's request for a planned unit development that would allow up to 33 tiny homes to be built in a cluster community on part of the 16.8-acre farm.

"The people who will generally be living in these 'small homes' will be those who need more intensive services than can be provided at this location," the group says in its petition. "We believe that the ministry may have well intent, however, Snow Hill Road is a rural community of subdivisions of single-family homes."

The Chattanooga/Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission on Monday will consider whether to authorize the planned unit development in the agricultural zoning. The Regional Planning Agency staff has recommended approval of the development, which planners said "is compatible with surrounding uses."

Ultimately, the application must be approved by the Hamilton County Commission for the cluster of homes to be built in the agricultural district.

"The proposal is supported by the Comprehensive Plan which recommends clustering development," the planning staff said in its analysis of the request. "While the proposed development form, which clusters small residential dwellings close together at the interior of the site, may be different from the large-lot development form in the area, the proposed development form does preserve a large portion of the site for open space and agricultural uses which also provides a large area of buffering to the adjacent properties."

Kidwell said he hopes to start building an initial 10 tiny homes later this year, if the county approves the planned unit development. The new homes, which he estimates will cost from $25,000 to $30,000 each, will be built on the site of the former Lighthouse United Methodist Church on Snow Hill near Mahan Gap Road. The property already includes a driveway, parking area, concrete foundation and septic tank system previously used by the church before it was disbanded and the building relocated more than four years ago.

On most of the farm, hay and vegetables are grown and the ministry has added cage-free chickens and rabbits. Kidwell said there are also plans to soon add goats to the farm. The ministry also raises food at a leased Hixson farm.

Kidwell said some of the lumber used in the new homes, which will be built on site, may be cut in one of the barns on the farm, and those skills and the scrap pieces of wood from the construction may feed another work opportunity for local residents.

"The property is safer because we're here," Kidwell said.

Kidwell's children live on the farm that his daughter, Kathleen, manages.

While most of the land will remain as farmland or open, the cluster of up to 33 tiny homes has drawn criticism from other residents concerned about homeless or low-income people living in the remote area without the access to public transportation or other services provided in the city.

"I love the idea of a tiny home community in Chattanooga, but I feel this is the wrong location," Beth Rinck White wrote in a Facebook post. "You can't walk past a market on the way home for groceries daily here. You must drive everywhere, there isn't an abundance of shopping close by eliminating the need to store things, and this is not a sought-after location by younger singles or couples who are the target audience."

Shannon Wilson Betts said the site is "wrong for jobs and transport" for those wanting to live in tiny homes, and others voiced concerns about bringing homeless or formerly homeless residents to their area.

But Kidwell said residents who rent the tiny homes will be required to pass drug tests and work to pay their rent.

"Everyone who lives here will go through a stringent background check, and the majority of the folks from our ministry that apply to live here will be people we've known for a long time or are employed or have a means to pay for their rent," he said.

Kidwell, a minister to the homeless for the past 15 years who also serves as an associate pastor at First Centenary Church in Chattanooga, said he understands that many people fear what they don't understand. He started his Mustard Tree Ministry three years ago and took over the Snow Hill farm last year as a way to help provide food and work for some of those he serves.

"This can be a type of healing and give people who might not otherwise be able to afford it the chance to live in a more rural area in a community to help support one another," Kidwell said.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@times freepress.com or at 423-757-6340.

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