The Reverend Kenneth Dupin calls them MEDcottages, but the nickname "granny pod" has stuck, particularly among critics.
"Is it a good idea to throw people into a storage container and put them in your back yard?" said Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff C. McKay (D-Lee). "This is the granny pod. What's next? The college dropout pod?"
Dupin has been successful in getting the Virginia General Assembly to pass a law that supersedes local zoning laws in allowing the granny pods.