Council wants you to weigh in on allowing more homes near transit and small lot homes

On May 16, Austin City Council will take public input and vote on housing reforms aimed at making Austin more walkable, transit-friendly, affordable, and sustainable. These changes are:

• Equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD): allowing more homes, taller buildings, and mixed-use, walkable development near Project Connect’s future light rail
• HOME Phase 2: reducing the lot size required to build one home
• Compatibility reform: reducing height restrictions designed to keep multi-family homes far away from single-family homes

Council is billing these as “transit-supportive” changes because these changes are partly meant to support access to transit, increase ridership, and strengthen Project Connect’s application for federal funding, which will be submitted this summer.

The ETOD zoning overlay applies within ½ mile of the Project Connect light rail corridor. It will restrict non-transit-supportive land uses (e.g. gas stations, storage units, car washes), and allow an extra 60 ft. of height (~5 stories) on non-single-family lots, up to 120 ft. tall (~10 stories), if certain affordability and tenant protection requirements are met. Those requirements include:

• providing 12-15% income-restricted units to those making below 50-60% of the median family income (MFI) or contributing to the city’s affordable housing funding
• for existing properties with housing currently affordable to 60% MFI or under:
  • providing units of similar cost and size to existing tenants
  • providing support with moving costs

The main focus of HOME Phase 2 is the reduction of Austin’s minimum lot size, which is how much land we require for a home to be built as a standalone property (as opposed to part of a condo regime). Austin’s current minimum lot size is 5,750 sq. ft. Staff has proposed a reduction to 2,000 sq. ft. and Austin’s Planning Commission has recommended a 1,500 sq. ft. minimum lot size. The level of density allowed at the proposed lot sizes is similar to that allowed under HOME Phase 1 (three units on a 5,750 sq. ft. lot), which passed last December.

Here is an example comparing a relatively large 12,000 sq ft corner lot and the possible development allowed under the current code and the proposed changes:

Compatibility refers to a set of height restrictions that project a 540 ft. “force field” around single-family properties that severely limits the height of multi-family, commercial, and mixed-use buildings. These compatibility standards work to keep multi-family homes and renters far from single-family homes. As a result, multi-family homes and their residents are pushed to the outskirts of residential neighborhoods, often beside major roads and highways.

Current compatibility restrictions extend 540 ft. (1.5 football fields), and the proposed changes reduce the compatibility distance to 75 ft. City staff estimates this change will create zoning capacity for up to 63,000 homes, mostly located near transit.

Some of the groups who have endorsed HOME and these land use changes include:

• AARP Texas
• Austin EMS Association
• Austin Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO Austin)
• Austin Habitat for Humanity
• CapMetro
• Environment Texas
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 520
• HousingWorks Austin
• Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA)
• Transit Forward
• University Democrats

Registering for the May 16 meeting

• Sign up to speak in-person at City Hall on May 16
• Sign up to speak over the phone on May 16
• Just register your support (i.e. answer “no” to “Do you wish to speak?”)

Note: it’s no problem to register to speak in-person even if there’s a chance you can’t make it. In fact, registering to speak in-person likely has the largest impact even if you ultimately can’t make it to the meeting.

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