Where you can legally park or put a tiny house

The short answer

Where a tiny house can legally go depends on what it legally is.

• On wheels, it's an RV. It can go where local zoning allows an RV to be occupied: RV parks, campgrounds, tiny home communities and some rural or specially zoned land.
• On a foundation, it's a dwelling. It can go where zoning allows a house that size, or where an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is allowed behind an existing house.

The rules are local. A lot two miles away can have opposite answers. That's why the most useful thing in this article is the zoning call script at the bottom.

Zoning in five minutes

Zoning answers "what can be built or used on this parcel?" Building codes answer "how must it be built?" A tiny house has to pass both.

For tiny houses, zoning usually turns on four questions:

1. Use: Is a dwelling allowed? A second dwelling (ADU)? An occupied RV?
2. Size: Some zones set minimum house sizes. ADU rules set maximum sizes.
3. Duration: RV occupancy is often limited to temporary or seasonal stays.
4. Foundation: Many ADU rules require a permanent foundation. Pasco County's new ADU rules, for example, say the unit "will be built on a permanent, fixed foundation."

Why do RVs get treated as temporary? Federal rules define an RV as "designed only for recreational use and not as a primary residence or for permanent occupancy" (24 CFR 3282.15). Florida's statute defines a park trailer as providing "seasonal or temporary living quarters" (Fla. Stat. 320.01). Local codes build on those definitions.

As one Florida newspaper put it in August 2026: don't assume that because a tiny home has wheels, you can park it on a residential lot and live in it.

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Option 1: RV parks and campgrounds

Best for: certified tiny homes on wheels, people who want to move later.

RV parks are zoned for RVs, have hookups and handle the legal side. The catch is that each park decides what it accepts.

Real numbers: KOA Clearwater / Lake Tarpon in Palm Harbor, Florida lists monthly RV sites at $750 (value) to $850 (standard) per month, April through December 2026. That includes 50/30 amp service, water, sewer and Wi-Fi; electricity is metered on top, and there's a $250 deposit. Its booking form lists fifth wheels, motorhomes, travel trailers and toy haulers, and the page doesn't say whether tiny homes are accepted. You'd need to call.

Ask every park:

• Do you accept tiny houses on wheels? Do you require RVIA certification?
• Is there an age limit on units?
• Is full-time, year-round occupancy allowed, or is there a maximum stay?
• What's metered separately?

Option 2: Tiny home communities

Best for: people who want neighbors who chose the same thing.

These are RV parks, mobile home parks or planned developments that welcome tiny homes. A roundup on TinyHouse.com (updated May 2025) lists several in Florida, including Orlando Lakefront in Orlando's College Park neighborhood (lot leases reported at $565 to $765 a month) and Circle Pond in south Hillsborough County. The Orlando figures are from the roundup, not our own calls, so confirm current rent and rules directly.

Circle Pond's own site now lists lot space "starting at $625 per month," including water, sewer, garbage, lawn care and electricity, across 12 spaces in Ruskin (Circle Pond Tiny Home Community, checked October 2026). More Tampa Bay options are in the section below.

Pinellas County made room for more of this in 2024: its updated rules let multiple units on one parcel be detached, which the county says allows "cottage-style or tiny-home rental developments on a single lot."

Option 3: A backyard ADU

Best for: homeowners, or anyone with family who owns a house.

Florida law (Fla. Stat. 163.31771) lets local governments allow ADUs in any single-family zone, but it doesn't make them. Each city writes its own rules, and they vary a lot even within Tampa Bay:

Sources: St. Petersburg, Tampa standards sheet and Tampa release, Clearwater, Pinellas County, checked October 2026. Full details and code links, including Hillsborough, are in Tampa Bay ADU rules.

An ADU has to be permitted and inspected as a dwelling. In practice that means a tiny house on a foundation, not a trailer parked on the grass.

Option 4: Your own rural land

Best for: people who want space and are ready to do utilities.

Rural and agricultural zones are sometimes more flexible about small houses and RVs, but "rural" doesn't mean "anything goes." You still need:

• Zoning approval for the use (dwelling, or occupied RV if allowed)
• Power, water and sewer or septic, or an off-grid plan (see off-grid tiny house)
• In Florida, proper installation and anchoring: state law requires park trailers kept in one place more than 45 days as a dwelling to be installed to state rules (Fla. Stat. 320.8325). More in tiny homes and hurricanes.

HomeAdvisor's range for land is $3,000 to $150,000, with sewer connection alone running $500 to $20,000. Run the full numbers in tiny house cost.

Option 5: Mobile home and park model communities

Some manufactured home communities accept park models. Park models are built to ANSI A119.5 and capped at 400 square feet; if you're shopping for one, the community is usually the first place to call because many sell and place units. See tiny house on wheels vs foundation for how park models differ from tiny homes on wheels.

Where to park a tiny house in Tampa Bay

Putting the options above together for Hillsborough and Pinellas:

• Tiny home communities: Circle Pond in Ruskin lists 12 spaces from $625 a month with utilities included; homes must be "certified safe" and use instant hot water (Circle Pond, checked October 2026). Not every village takes outside houses: ESCAPE Tampa Bay Village in Thonotosassa says its lots are for units built for that community and you can't place your own RV or mobile home there (ESCAPE Tampa Bay Village, checked October 2026).
• RV parks: the Palm Harbor KOA above lists monthly sites at $750 to $850. Ask each park whether it accepts tiny houses and allows year-round stays.
• Backyard ADUs: St. Petersburg, Tampa (in eligible neighborhoods), Clearwater and unincorporated Pinellas allow them, as permitted buildings on a foundation. Unincorporated Pinellas also allows cottage-style or tiny-home rental developments on a single lot (Pinellas County, checked October 2026).
• Unincorporated Hillsborough: we could not verify the current ADU code text, so call a zoning counselor at (813) 272-5600, option 3, with your parcel number.

Wherever you land, a tiny house on wheels is treated like a mobile home in a storm. Hillsborough County puts all manufactured and mobile homes in evacuation Zone A, even inland (Hillsborough County, May 2026, checked October 2026). See tiny homes and hurricanes, and the state rules in are tiny homes legal in Florida.

Comparing the options

The zoning call script

Do this before you buy land, sign a lot lease or order a house.

Have ready: the parcel number or address, and what you want to place (size in square feet, on wheels or foundation, RVIA or park model certified, full time or part time).

Call or email the zoning counselor. In Hillsborough County, for example, that's (813) 272-5600, option 3, or the county's online zoning information request form. Then say:

Then ask:

1. "Is a single-family dwelling of [size] square feet allowed here? Is there a minimum house size?"
2. "Is an accessory dwelling unit allowed? What's the maximum size, and does the owner have to live on site?"
3. "Can an RV or park model be occupied here? For how long?"
4. "What permits and inspections would I need, and which department issues them?"
5. "Can you send me the code sections you're relying on?"

Get it in writing. A friendly answer on the phone is not a permit. An email with code section numbers is something you can hold onto.

Write down the date, the person's name and what they said.

Before you buy anything

• Zoning answer in writing for the exact parcel
• Utility plan priced (power, water, sewer or septic)
• Insurance quote for the house at that location
• Financing that allows how you'll use it (tiny house financing)

In Florida, read are tiny homes legal in Florida next.