Calhoun Tiny House Advocates Score Legal Win
According to Brett Kittredge: Sept. 10, 2025 -A local nonprofit challenging the City of Calhoun’s ban on homes smaller than 1,150 square feet won an initial legal victory.
Tiny House Hand Up (THHU) sought to use donated land to build modest, affordable cottages, but the city’s restrictions blocked their plans. Represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ), THHU argued that the ban violated the Georgia Constitution. The judge agreed, ruling from the bench that Calhoun cannot enforce its prohibition against the nonprofit, with a written order.
Written Order
Court Strikes City Ban On 'Small ' Homes
City Attorney Caught Using AI
ORDER FILED IN GORDON COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT PAVES WAY FOR TINY HOMES IN CALHOUN AFTER CITY ATTORNEY CAUGHT USING AI IN FILING: A judge has filed his written order concerning a years-long lawsuit to make the City of Calhoun allow Tiny House Hand Up, Inc. (THHU) to build a small homes community off of Harris Beamer Road in Calhoun.
As the Gazette originally reported in October 2021, THHU went before the Calhoun City Council with a variance request to move from a minimum requirement of 1,150 sq. ft. per home down to 540 sq. ft. per home in order to build the tiny home community on the 7-plus acre tract. After a public hearing, the request lacked a motion to continue forward with a vote.
At around that same time, the City Council imposed a moratorium on any new PRD applications.
THHU was ready to break ground on the “Cottages at King Corner,” a community of Southern Living-styled cottages with 540 to 600 square feet of living space each. According to the group, they had housing plans, support from a financial institution to help finance mortgages and contractors lined up for the project.
In late October 2021, it was announced that Tiny House Hand Up was suing the City of Calhoun after the variance ban, claiming that the minimum floor area requirement in the Calhoun Zoning Code violates the Due Process Clause of the Georgia Constitution. THHU was represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ) in the lawsuit.
In January of this year, THHU filed a comprehensive Motion for Summary Judgment. On April 21, 2025, the City (defendants) responded in opposition to THHU’s Motion for Summary Judgment, citing a slew of “facts” from a long list of “cases” that purported to support the City’s position on the matter.
On May 27, 2025, the Institute for Justice responded in a court filing on behalf of THHU, saying that “the City’s filings contain dozens of serious legal and factual errors.”
“Plaintiff Tiny House Hand Up’s Motion for Summary Judgment set forth undisputed facts showing that the City of Calhoun’s ban on building single-family homes smaller than 1,150 square feet is unconstitutional because it does not bear a ‘substantial relation’ to health, safety, or welfare,” read the court filing. “That’s because, other than the overall size, smaller homes and larger homes are the same. They’re built the same way, they use the same materials, and they follow the same building codes. The City’s own comprehensive plan agrees, urging the City to incentivize smaller homes, not ban them. And the City’s own designated representative testified that the City could not say how banning smaller homes advanced any of the City’s stated interests. Nothing in Defendant’s response alters those straightforward conclusions. To begin, dozens of serious legal and factual errors plague the City’s response and related filings: fictitious quotes, misstated legal holdings, and mischaracterized or nonexistent facts. On the merits, the City’s assortment of made-up, inadmissible, or conclusory assertions fails to set forth any facts, disputed or otherwise, capable of salvaging the bans constitutionality, either facially or as applied.”
According to court filings, on Aug. 6, 2025, the City filed a Supplemental Brief in Response to Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment, where City Attorney George Govignon acknowledged that, due to faulty reliance on artificial intelligence software, the City’s “recent filings contained ‘serious citation errors including fabricated case citations and mischaracterized authorities,’ which ‘were inexcusable and require correction to ensure the Court has accurate legal authorities.’”
The judge granted THHU’s Motion for Summary Judgment, saying that the City of Calhoun and the Calhoun City Council are prevented from applying the minimum floor area requirement to THHU’s King Corner property, paving the way for the tiny homes project.
The Gazette has reached out to City Administrator Paul Worley and City Attorney George Govignon, asking if the City plans to appeal the order. No response has been given at press time.
Institute For Justice Wins Tiny House Victory In Calhoun, Ga.
Incredible breaking news! This took almost four years! We are so grateful for the Institute For Justice that is working on behalf of the tiny house industry!
Sept. 18 2025
