ROCK FALLS – Lots in Rock Falls that are too small to fit a standard-sized home and still meet setback requirements now have another avenue to build.

Rock Falls City Council members Tuesday unanimously voted to reduce the minimum ground floor area of residential dwellings from 800 square feet to 400 square feet. The change applies only to lots that are, at most, 55 feet wide.

“Anything that’s not allowed on a regular basis wouldn’t be allowed here,” Rock Falls City Administrator Robbin Blackert assured council members. “You can’t live in a trailer on a city lot. The [building] code still stays the same and, when you build, you have to build exactly like you would for a 1,500-square-foot home.”

“Anything that’s not allowed on a regular basis wouldn’t be allowed here. You can’t live in a trailer on a city lot. The [building] code still stays the same and, when you build, you have to build exactly like you would for a 1,500-square-foot home.”

—  Robbin Blackert, Rock Falls city administrator

That means a tiny house must be hooked up to city utilities, city attorney Matt Cole said.

Alderman Brian Snow noted that any new construction also must get a building permit and pass a building inspection performed by the city.

The ordinance itself doesn’t define “dwelling,” but that’s because the definition is elsewhere in the city code, isn’t being altered and applies equally to tiny houses that now are allowed, Cole said.

Cole said that although an existing lot wider than 55 feet could be subdivided into plots that would allow tiny homes, the City Council would first have to vote to approve the subdivision of the lot.

“For the most part, in practice, this is only going to deal with lots already this size,” he said.

Many such preexisting lots are the result of fires or decrepit houses that the city obtained and demolished, Rock Falls building inspector Mark Searing has said. The lots are just too small to put a house that’s 800 square feet or more on it, he said.

“I’m really excited about this tiny home idea,” Sterling-based real estate agent Chandra Meyer-Howard said Wednesday. “I’m really hoping a contractor or builder builds a spec home so we can kind of see what it costs. That’s been the talk around our office.”

New construction is expensive, costing about $200 to $250 per square foot depending on what building materials are used, said Meyer-Howard, who works for RE/MAX Sauk Valley and regularly does business in Rock Falls.

That puts the cost of a new 800-square-foot house between $160,000 and $200,000, versus $80,000 to $100,000 for a newly constructed 400-square-foot house.

So far this year, the average price of a single-family home in Rock Falls has ranged from a low of $83,840 in April to a high of $135,861 in June, Meyer-Howard said. She obtained the numbers from MRED, a multiple listing service that is used by many real estate agents.

It used to be that a first-time buyer could get a “good, move-in-ready home that needs some work” for about $100,000, but that no longer is the case, Meyer-Howard said.

“The demand is high right now,” she said. “On a personal level, I have quite a few buyers, but what they need isn’t readily available.”

As of Sept. 6, a total of 40 homes were for sale in Rock Falls, only 17 of which weren’t already under contract, she said. Of those 17, nine are less than 1,000 square feet in size, Meyer-Howard said.

The homes’ costs range from $25,000 to $990,000, which is a large price gap, she said. The cheaper houses aren’t likely to qualify for loans, which means buyers would have to make cash purchases, Meyer-Howard said.

“It used to be we’d have no less than 40 houses available,” she said.

Meyer-Howard said she believes tiny homes will be great transitional housing, perfect for young professionals right out of college, tradespeople going from high school into the workforce or – depending on how it’s built – for older individuals.

“I’m interested to see how it works for us,” she said. “Instead of being an actual [tiny homes] community, just being sporadic throughout Rock Falls. I think it’ll be nice.”

Comments shared on new ‘Demise’ sculpture

A recently installed abstract sculpture titled “Demise” was the subject of an extended public comment made by former council member Marshall Doane during Tuesday’s meeting.

“Demise” was designed by artist Phil Mattox, who donated it to the city. The city installed it on First Avenue, where the LoveLight Tree used to stand. According to a plaque on the statue, it “represents the five major industries that lined the Rock River in both Sterling and Rock Falls that were lost by separate individual forces” and “is not their headstone but a symbol of remembrance.”

Doane acknowledged that the sculpture was meant to remember the time when Rock Falls was a thriving manufacturing town, but he said the aftermath of losing those businesses makes memories of that time painful.

“After those events, it stands burning hotter as a reminder of the trauma that [people who lost their jobs] all had to endure,” he said. “It drives a stake in my heart to see our town place a monument to our town’s demise this way.”

He requested that the sculpture’s plaque – which misspells two of the five companies’ names – be redone, and that “Demise” be moved elsewhere so it isn’t “front and center” when entering Rock Falls.

Doane left the meeting, unprompted, immediately after he finished speaking and before anyone else stood to make a comment.

Mayor Rod Kleckler – who was not participating in the meeting in order to give Mayor Pro Tem Gabriella McKanna experience running a meeting – spoke after Doane.

He congratulated and thanked Rock Falls Tourism for a well-executed Art in the Park, along with other events.

Kleckler concluded by saying, “I’d also like to make a personal comment that every time I look at Marshall Doane, he is so full of [expletive].”

Many of the council members applauded Kleckler’s comment.

Alderwoman Violet Sobottka also addressed “Demise,” saying she believes the First Avenue entrance to the city looks very nice and keeps eyes off the backs of buildings.

“Art is appreciated by the eye of the beholder,” Sobottka said. “There’s some people that don’t like the ‘Mona Lisa’ or ‘David.’ That doesn’t mean they’re bad, just that they’re not your taste.”