Council approves rule to allow more use of small lots

In 2016, City Council voted to close a loophole that allowed houses to be built on smaller lots than intended when the Land Development Code was adopted.

At the time, some North Austin neighbors were complaining that they had been fooled into agreeing to small-lot amnesty. They did not anticipate that developers would “exploit this loophole” to increase housing and in turn increase the risk of flooding and parking issues, according to Clay Crenshaw, who was then with the Northfield Neighborhood Association. (That neighborhood association is now the North Loop Neighborhood Association.)

Now, seven years later, another resident of North Austin – Brian Bedrosian, vice president of the North Loop Neighborhood Association – says neighbors are beginning to see the wisdom of allowing what is called “disaggregation” of small lots. Bedrosian told Council on Thursday that his neighborhood had voted unanimously to support one neighbor who went before the Board of Adjustment to win approval for building on their small lot.

Following Council’s direction Thursday, staff will come up with wording to repeal the section of the LDC that prevents the disaggregation of small lots, allowing houses to be built on smaller lots.

“The neighborhood looks at this disaggregation as a way of unlocking another housing type in our neighborhood that allows families to find more affordable options,” said Bedrosian at the City Council meeting. “The cost of property in our neighborhood – as it is throughout the city – is one of the biggest hurdles for folks to stay in the neighborhood.”

He said that although lots were originally platted at 25 feet in width, when a developer purchased those lots and put them together to make 50- or 75-foot lots the neighborhood was a suburb. Now, however, the neighborhood supports cutting those lots apart and using them to provide narrow-lot homes “as a buffer between our commercial corridors and our single-family homes. I think this is a great way to provide a new housing type in the mix that we already have.”

Council Member Chito Vela was the lead sponsor of the resolution directing staff to remove the disaggregation rule from the Land Development Code, as it prevented developers from using small lots to build smaller homes. Vela told Bedrosian that he had explained the item better than he could have. He also praised the neighborhood for coming down on the side of increasing the city’s housing stock.

Council approved the item unanimously. Council members Zo Qadri, Leslie Pool and José Velásquez co-sponsored the item.

This article has been changed since publication to clarify the fact that the Northfield Neighborhood Association is now named the North Loop Neighborhood Association.

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