Permitting a yurt

[mcdm007]

Does anyone have any information on the counties that are "pro yurt" ? That is to say I would like to build a yurt in an area that I can live in it full time. Small acreage preferably. Any help in the areas of Washington and Oregon would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

[Jafo]

You might want to ask

Pacific Yurts

as their HQ is actually in Oregon. The state parks there utilize their yurts for year round camping so I am betting the state in general is somewhat friendly to it. They have a service rep here that is a member:

Yurt Forum - A Yurt Community - View Profile: Pacific Yurts

You can ask them via Private Message and see?

[zschwarzmiller]

Originally Posted by mcdm007

Does anyone have any information on the counties that are "pro yurt" ? That is to say I would like to build a yurt in an area that I can live in it full time. Small acreage preferably. Any help in the areas of Washington and Oregon would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

I am very preliminary in my research but I have seen yurts in klickitat county and have spoken with the county planner - they are complaint driven county and fairly easy to obtain conditional use permits as well

[HawaiiYurts]

Yes, I'd think Pacific could give you some tips about that area. And it may be more effective to figure out which counties do NOT accept them? But I'd expect Oregon and Washington would be pretty accepting of them as a rule...

I think a lot of areas don't have a hard and fast policy. Rural areas are often 'don't ask, don't tell'. Perhaps the thing to do would be to research and pick out ten areas you like for other reasons and then start calling the building departments of the areas. Then maybe we can update 'friendly zones' or 'unfriendly zones' on here. That would be useful in future industry efforts to clear yurts through the IBC as well.

I know that in Arizona, Colorado was successful in permitting after they addressed the

insulation

r-value codes and fire codes. I'm not sure if that's statewide. Here in Hawaii, we have been successful permitting on all islands except Oahu and Maui, but I haven't actually tried there yet because we haven't had a client that wants to permit there yet. I've heard they are 'anti', but I'm look forward to challenging it.

[mcdm007]

I spoke with a CSR @

Pacific Yurts

regarding permitting in Oregon. Although she was nice, I really did'nt get the help I was asking for. I asked her to point me in the direction of "yurt freindly" counties as I would like to build a yurt in Oregon or Washington. I asked her maybe the President could help if she didn't know. Anyway to get to the point, she said most people didn't disclose that they were putting up a yurt, as there was probably an already existing structure. I am at the beginning stages of this and I want to conform to the applicable laws and such, and I see myself being somewhat if not totally off grid at some point and living in my yurt full time. I can see that this is going to take a lot of research, phone calls, and due dilligence on my part, and I don't think it should really be this difficult.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

[Jafo]

Do you have any specific counties in mind?

[HawaiiYurts]

I suspect this is not as difficult as it seems to you right now. The first step is to narrow down some places so you can start asking questions. It seems you want someone to say 'counties a,b,c and d allow yurts. and e,f and g do not'. But in most places, no one has compiled that info. And even if they had at some point, with constantly changing codes and policy, it wouldn't necessarily be accurate info.

We can start compiling current yurt friendly zones here, it's a start. In most cases, yurt manufacturers help by providing what a client asks for to complete a permit process and they don't get involved any further than that. They aren't going to walk you through the process and there may be liability issues surrounding their saying one county does or does not permit yurts. It's been an area that many manufacturers shy away from.

Our business at

Yurts of Hawaii

is very unique in that aspect, but then that's what we focus on, and have CYC do their part to make us a good yurt. Point being, in most places in the nation, you have to do that foot work yourself and then there's a network that can help you navigate that process. When I started our business, yurts weren't permittable here. I had to fight the county, prove our engineering, durability and go through a long process of going on up the chain of command with photos, complete engineering specs, wind loads, weight, seismic ratings, etc. In some places it won't be that difficult. You have to call the individual county building department. Simple as that to start with. If you get a yurt friendly one (and there are many), you save yourself some hassle.

[mcdm007]

I don't have any specific counties at this point in either Washington or Oregon, I was hoping someone with a yurt in either of these 2 states could offer some input as to their experience. Any help would be appreciated. Then again I could get a piece of land off the beaten path and say F9%3 the system and just do what I wanted in the first place.

Seriously, any help with specific areas of Washington or Oregon would be a great help

Mike

[Dan R-M]

Our yurt isn't permitted, 'cause it's a temporary structure the county is ok with, but we've been exploring the prospects of cob and straw bale. The former is as far off the zoning board's radar as yurts, I'm sure.
The best advice we've gotten is to learn as much as one can about the zoning board and building inspectors (talking to folks who have built in the area recently) and to remember that most are not out to get you, but are more than willing to work with someone who is trying to do things the right way (the safe way). They won't automatically be antagonistic to new ideas if those ideas can be proven to be sound, but they're not going to do the work to establish the proof.
In some cases, the board or inspectors will actually be excited about working with you, because they want to encourage safe new ideas.
You can comment, Melissa, on the reality of that situation. We haven't acted on the advice yet ourselves, but it sounds reasonable and jives with our experience when informally asking a member of our zoning board about our yurt "summer home" by the garden.

[Nicole74]

Originally Posted by Dan R-M

Our yurt isn't permitted, 'cause it's a temporary structure the county is ok with, but we've been exploring the prospects of cob and straw bale. The former is as far off the zoning board's radar as yurts, I'm sure.
The best advice we've gotten is to learn as much as one can about the zoning board and building inspectors (talking to folks who have built in the area recently) and to remember that most are not out to get you, but are more than willing to work with someone who is trying to do things the right way (the safe way). They won't automatically be antagonistic to new ideas if those ideas can be proven to be sound, but they're not going to do the work to establish the proof.
In some cases, the board or inspectors will actually be excited about working with you, because they want to encourage safe new ideas.
You can comment, Melissa, on the reality of that situation. We haven't acted on the advice yet ourselves, but it sounds reasonable and jives with our experience when informally asking a member of our zoning board about our yurt "summer home" by the garden.

Hi. I had thought of using cob or straw covered with limestone on the outside of the walls of the yurt. Using the material that normally covers your house especially for winter as installation. But I don't know if it would work. I'm thinking the limestone provides a harder wall. But considering that you may have to replace your yurt structure at some point, you may not want too.