Council votes to make it easier to build along highways

City Council voted Thursday to eliminate a section of the Land Development Code that governs development along highways, hoping the change will help add housing units in the city and “eliminate barriers to the creation of income-restricted units under established city density bonus programs.”

In addition, according to a staff report, the change “will prioritize use of the correct zoning classification for the intended purpose to reduce the unnecessary placement of industrial zoning in historically disadvantaged areas.”

Council Member Leslie Pool sponsored the resolution to amend Commercial Highway (CH) District Regulations in order to allow for a planned development area combining district. The change eliminates LDC 25-2-582(C) and replaces it with language to clarify that a zoning ordinance establishing CH-PDA controls over any conflicting CH regulations. The Planning Commission unanimously approved the change.

Under the regulations repealed Thursday, the language being eliminated said that if there was a conflict between the rules of the zoning district and the section that was repealed, “the more restrictive requirement governs.”

That section of the code set the minimum lot size at 10 acres and the maximum floor area ratio at four to one. The maximum height allowed was set at 200 feet, regardless of the size of the property. The minimum front yard and street side yard setback were both set at 50 feet. The minimum interior side yard setback was 25 feet. Finally, the maximum building cover was set at 55 percent of the lot area, and the maximum impervious cover was also set at 55 percent. All of that was eliminated by Thursday’s vote.

Two east side activists, Tracy Witte and Monica Guzmán, told Council that they objected to the changes because they perceived the action as giving neighborhoods less power to negotiate with developers.

Guzmán told the Austin Monitor, “Under this new change, a developer can do anything they want and the neighborhood … they don’t get any say on community benefits.” It remains to be seen whether that will be a problem because Council still must approve any zoning change.

Council Member Leslie Pool, the lead sponsor of the ordinance change, said that “because we’ve had a number of PDA cases, it seems clear we need to look at community benefits when PDA is attached to a base zoning district, and that is not the case at this time. I look forward to having additional discussion around this item at the next Housing and Planning Committee meeting on May 23.”

According to the affordability impact statement prepared by staff, Council should consider “incorporating a superiority requirement for CH-PDA to ensure community benefits such as affordable housing and environmental design considerations to minimize the effect of nearby highways.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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