A streamlined approach to infill housing is set for Council action

City Council members received a preview Tuesday of a proposed infill ordinance, or “site plan lite,” aimed at streamlining the approval process for small-scale residential projects.

The proposed ordinance on Thursday’s agenda would apply to developments of five to 16 housing units and would allow for flexibility on drainage calculations and greater reliance on private engineers charged with “stamping and sealing the plans,” according to staff.

The proposal is the product of Council resolutions passed in 2022 and 2023 with the overall goal of adding more infill housing on an expedited timeline. As such, Council is being asked to make a distinction in city regulations between small residential projects and large-scale developments.

Staff members estimate that the amendments to drainage regulations may reduce up to 40 percent of total project costs.

Keith Mars, assistant director of development services, and Jorge Morales, director of Watershed Protection, provided Tuesday’s briefing, telling the Council the updated proposal draws on feedback from stakeholders and the community.

The draft ordinance, Mars said, is both sensitive to infill development while “making sure that we have the appropriate safeguards in place for protecting the environment and public safety.”

The draft ordinance applies to two types of infill developments: residential site plan developments for five to 16 units and re-subdivisions to create new lots within existing residential subdivisions. Lots that are 11,500 square feet or less would not require a drainage review by staff; lots no greater than 1 acre would not require on-site detention or an engineered drainage plan if the site drains to the street or other drainage system. By making these adjustments, Mars said the city could more easily commit to a 90-day turnaround for permitting projects.

The feedback process that staff used to draft the ordinance came from “making the process accessible to all Austinites (by) avoiding the jargons and avoiding the acronyms,” making the proposal understandable to a wider audience, Mars said.

“It could be your next-door neighbor that has an interest in subdividing land and keeping the property in the family, all the way to … a developer that’s putting homes on the ground,” he said.

Much of the questioning from Council members centered on drainage scenarios and possible flooding.

Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes said a top concern for her Southeast Austin constituents is lot-to-lot flooding. She asked staff to address how changes to city regulations still maintains protections against flooding and any additional strains to drainage infrastructure.

Morales agreed that flooding remains a concern citywide.

“The concerns we’ve heard from the community the most is the flooding,” he said. “And it’s not necessarily creek flooding but the localized flooding that occurs in some of the communities (where) maybe the systems are inadequate and can’t handle the runoff.”  Even though the permitting process would be streamlined for small residential projects, he said, runoff, impervious cover and drainage impacts were previously addressed in the Council-approved HOME ordinances.

Meanwhile, Watershed Protection continues collecting data “to make sure we understand our assets, our storm systems, and making sure that we’re continuing to make improvements where needed,” Morales continued. “So these changes are really streamlining the process and helping to achieve the affordability that we’re looking for … adding more units but not necessarily exacerbating what’s already there.”

Council Member Paige Ellis, who has championed a streamlined process to achieve more housing units, said she is giving further consideration to some aspects of the proposal. She said she would like to have a larger community conversation at some point about pursuing a regional approach to drainage.

“Not every person who’s developing a small lot necessarily has the money and the knowledge to be able to go through this process,” she said.

Noting that materials related to the meeting were made available to the public on Friday before Tuesday’s work session, Ellis said she wants to make certain Council members have enough time to respond to questions from their constituents before Thursday, “or for us to have a couple of these more detailed conversations. … I’m the last person that wants another postponement on this, but I want to make sure that we really get it right.”

Photo by H Padleckas, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

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