Charlotte County approves more homes for tiny home community, hundreds already approved

Hundreds of tiny homes could be coming to a neighborhood near you. A developer is planning to build more than 200 in Charlotte County, south of Punta Gorda on Burnt Store Road.

At one point in time, most of Burnt Store Road was empty, but in recent years developers have added more and more homes. Now, Simple Life Ventures has plans to build a tiny homes community on that Charlotte County road.

Simple Life Ventures President and CEO Mike McCann has been looking forward to this big project for months.

“Simple Life is just that. We’re just trying to simplify life,” said McCann.

MORE: The simple life: More than 200 tiny homes coming to new Charlotte County community

Tuesday afternoon, the Charlotte County commissioners gave Simple Life Ventures the green light to add 48 homes to the pre-approved plan, bringing the total number of tiny homes approved for construction to 278.

The tiny homes range in size from 585-square-feet to 1,085-square-feet.

Some of them will be located in a coastal high hazard area, which means these tiny homes will be at high risk of flooding.

“Simple life will pay a fee per coastal high hazard unit to address potential evacuation impacts created by placing the additional 48 units in the coastal area,” said Geri Waksler, an attorney representing Simple Life Ventures.

Charlotte County Commissioner Joe Tiseo voted against the tiny home plan to expand.

“I’m just having a hard time approving more than what rights were given to the property,” said Tiseo.

More homes mean more cars and trucks on Burnt Store Road.

“The fact that again this is on Burnt Store Road giving them what they got in the first go-around was quite a bit and we’re just having issues with looking at traffic on that road moving forward,” said Charlotte County Commissioner Christopher Constance.

Simple Life Ventures has to provide an updated study showing the impact of additional homes on Burnt Store Road traffic.