Cottage House Plan

The City of Cottage Grove is divided into zoning districts to protect public health, safety and welfare, and to provide for orderly planned use of land. Zoning districts identify such constraints as allowed uses, minimum lot sizes, minimum setbacks and other siting requirements, fence standards, and sign allowances. Each of Cottage Grove's zoning districts allow for a variety of uses. Some uses require land use permit approval. For example, some uses may be allowed only with a conditional use permit, a home occupation permit, or a mixed-use master plan.

Creole Cottage

The Creole Cottage is a one and one-half story house with a gabled roof, the ridge of which is parallel to the street. The house is raised from 18 to 30 inches above a ventilated crawl space and is built up to the front property line. There are four squarish rooms with no hallways. Most Creole Cottages include various additional rooms behind the main four rooms. The earlier cottages include a gallery and two small service spaces known as cabinets A dependency (small separate building) at the rear of the lot probably supported this plan. Later cottages include one or more rooms constructed at the rear with a ridgeline at right angles to the main part of the house. This plan effectively moves the dependency from the rear of the lot and attaches it to the four main rooms.

The front of the cottage usually has four shuttered openings, of which two are doors and two are windows. Above the front wall is an overhang called an abat-vent. Much like balconies, abat-vents provide protection to the front wall, doors, and windows, from the sun and rain.

The Creole Cottage, which is mostly found in the South, originated in New Orleans in the 1700s. The homes are distinguished by a front wall that recedes to form a first-story porch and second-story balcony that stretch across the entire front of the structure. Full-length windows open into the balconies, and lacy ironwork characteristically runs across the second-story level. These two- and three-story homes are symmetrical in design with front entrances placed at the center.