Is this the best Tiny Home Community?

Do you want to live in a tiny house community where you know everyone but aren't on top of your neighbors? Then, you'll want to hear about Acony Bell Tiny Home Village. Founded in 2017, it's located in Mills River, North Carolina, near Asheville.

First, let's talk about the people behind Acony Bell, founders Mark Brooks and John Monroe. Mark worked as a civil engineer for 25 years, and John has complementary experience in real estate and property management. They are both genuinely passionate about advocating for more legal acceptance of tiny home communities.

"I work in probably 20 different counties in North Carolina. Their attitudes and rules and regulations with regard to doing this kind of thing are so different. I mean, it varies wildly from one little burg to the next. And a lot of times, their regulations and whatnot are formed by maybe one or two people within the local government or maybe on the council or whatever's attitudes, opinions, and possibly even prejudices.

I just wish that they would take the time to come and investigate places like Acony Bell and other good communities like this and look at it and ask them questions and go, how does this work?

This is a great solution. It limits sprawl, even though we're pretty fairly rural here. And a lot of positives. I just think that something's got to be part of the solution in the future."

-Mark Brooks, Acony Bell cofounder

Tiny Home Community Development

The property was all actively farmed tomato and pepper fields when they purchased it. Most of the property was in the floodplain that flooded pretty regularly. So, they decided to excavate some dirt from the front portion to fill in and raise the elevation. They undertook other specialized infrastructure projects to add to the quality of life in the community. It was all expensive but worth it.

Mark and John made it their mission to create a wonderful place to call home. Located on 58 acres with mountain views, close to the Pisgah National Forest, this village is not a typical RV park. It was designed to provide everyone with privacy while allowing them opportunities to be part of the community through shared spaces and village events.

Their development philosophy incorporates sizeable lots and distance between homes and landscaping between them. Each time a tiny house moves into the community, a new tree is planted, and the resident gets to choose what kind!

"Tiny living is about living outside. Decks, chairs, horseshoe pits, fire pits—everybody puts their own little twist on their little area. Now, we've got a couple of homes that have decks on top of them. So I think that's the number one important thing.

Second of all is trying to make everything look like marine barracks. You don't want that straight-lined up. We try to put a skew on the homes to kind of break them up so it doesn't look like home after home after home. These homes are all different builders, which creates the eclecticism of the village. And that just makes it really cute and a great place to be because of that.

We could have jammed 500 units in here (instead of the 114 lots), and turned it into not a very nice place to live."

-John Monroe, Acony Bell cofounder