Council’s plans to change housing rules upset some neighborhood advocates

Austin’s “single-family neighborhoods are in jeopardy of losing big” with the proposed changes to the city’s zoning regulations, according to Ana Aguirre, president of the Austin Neighborhoods Council. While housing advocates have praised City Council Member Leslie Pool’s HOME initiative, the Austin Neighborhoods Council and Go Austin/Vamos Austin are among those decrying the proposals.

Aguirre lined up with other neighborhood advocates holding a press conference Tuesday to highlight the dangers they perceive in City Council’s push to revise rules that currently restrict most single-family lots to just one house and prevent duplexes from being built in areas zoned as Single Family-Large Lot (SF-1) and Single Family-Standard Lot (SF-2). The category SF-1 denotes a 10,000-square-foot lot, while SF-2 refers to the standard-size lot that is a minimum of 5,750 square feet.

The new rules would allow up to three housing units, including tiny homes on a single-family-zoned property, but not recreational vehicles. Rules for having two homes on a lot would be relaxed, and regulations related to the number of unrelated adults who may live in one home would be eliminated.

Under this initiative, duplexes and two-family residential buildings would be permitted in SF-1, SF-2 and SF-3 zoned areas. A total of three units per lot could be built on standard lots that currently have just one house.

Another part of the proposal could bring the biggest changes to single-family neighborhoods. Under that proposal, the minimum lot size for duplexes or triplexes would be reduced from 7,000 square feet to 5,750 square feet. Council is expected to take up that proposed change next year.

Aguirre complained that the public has not been given sufficient time to weigh in on the proposals, which she said “eliminate planning by the public and allow developers to build affluent, multifamily units where they make the most profit and not where it serves our middle-class and working-class families. It will be an unparalleled disaster for our Austin neighborhoods.”

Carmen Llanes, executive director of GAVA, said the HOME initiative “hurts the elderly, families, renters, the working class and the poor. We really need affordable housing. This plan will spur speculation and gentrification. We need thoughtful, planned growth; we don’t need to give unfettered access to our land to developers.”

In a statement to the Monitor, Pool defended her initiative.

“The status quo is clearly not working well for the middle class who don’t qualify for subsidies, nor can they find anything in Austin they can afford. We can no longer ignore the needs of those who provide basic services for our city; the housing and staffing shortages for EMS medics, teachers, nurses, and small businesses compel us to act,” she said. “The changes being proposed are just one part of a larger toolkit to help neighbors, old and new, use their properties to meet their needs.”

Attorney Bill Aleshire is representing four homeowners in the Elmwood neighborhood in South Austin who are suing a Dallas developer. That developer, according to Aleshire, “has come in and subdivided each of those lots into four” with the intention of building eight houses, which would be a violation of the neighborhood’s deed restrictions.

“I suggest that what Pool and (District 5 Council Member) Ryan Alter are proposing is to move the city’s legal position from simply ignoring deed restrictions and covenants and violations of them to a position where the city is actively encouraging and facilitating these violations, making the city a litigation target,” Aleshire said.

Bill Bunch of the Save Our Springs Alliance said he was specifically concerned about how adding more houses would mean more human-made surfaces that don’t absorb rainfall in a city already prone to flooding. In addition, Bunch said he feared that increasing the number of houses would reduce the amount of trees, grass and other vegetation, causing damage to the environment.

“It’s hard to minimize how much more unlivable our central city will be without these green spaces that we currently enjoy – and everybody enjoys them, whether you own that property or not, whether you’re living nearby in an apartment complex.”

City Council will hear from the public at a joint hearing with the Planning Commission starting at 2 p.m. Thursday. The commission will also hold a separate hearing Nov. 14. Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed initial changes at their meeting on Dec. 7. More information about the proposed amendments, along with guidance on how to participate in the upcoming public hearings, is available on the city’s website.

In addition, the city is hosting an educational open house on Monday, Nov. 6, at the Austin Central Library, 710 W. Cesar Chavez St., from 6 to 8 p.m. Staff will be available to discuss proposed code amendments.

The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here. This story has been changed since publication to clarify the fact that the minimum lot size change for duplexes and triplexes is part of the current proposal.