Council Member Seeks to Make Homeownership More Attainable With Smaller Lot Sizes

A map of zoning districts throughout Austin shows single-family zones in yellow (screenshot via City of Austin)

City Council returns today, July 20, from its annual summer meeting hiatus to an absurdly long 196-item agenda. Buried more than halfway down the list is a resolution from District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool that could realize a long-sought-after dream of housing advocates pushing for transformative change to Austin's Land Development Code.

The >detailed resolution, which Pool says she and her staff have been thinking about for more than a year, directs staff to work on a range of issues related to the city's single­-family zoning districts, which account for most of the developable land throughout the city. Chief among the changes would be a reduction to the minimum lot size required for lots in single-family (SF) zones from 5,750 to 2,500 square feet, as well as changes to most SF zones that would allow property owners to build up to three housing units, by right.

The item is co-sponsored by CMs Chito Vela and Zo Qadri, Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis, and Mayor Kirk Watson; it is expected to pass overwhelmingly. When that happens, this resolution will join two other votes Council has taken recently that could be highly impactful on housing development in Austin: a Qadri resolution from May that would eliminate parking requirements, and a June resolution from Vela that would ease restrictions on how tall buildings can be near single-family homes.

Taken together, the two LDC amendments in Pool's resolution could finally open the door to a goal Council members have long said they support: increased development of smaller-scale, "missing middle" housing that can be built in existing neighborhoods. Because land in Austin is so expensive, especially in popular neighborhoods, and because local regulations around how to build this type of housing are more cumbersome, it is often difficult to make such developments financially viable. But Pool's resolution also directs staff to address some of these regulations – such as adjustments to setback, height, and impervious cover limits, and requirements around how utility connections are laid out – that could make it easier to build multiple housing units on smaller lots.

For political observers who have watched city leaders try, and fail, to bring about this kind of change to Austin's LDC (which is nearly four decades old) for 10 years, Pool's authorship of this resolution came as a surprise. But, she told us, its primary goal – increasing homeownership opportunities for people in the middle of the income ladder – has always been a priority. "At the city, we've been good about creating housing opportunities for lower and higher wage earners," she said. "But we've done less for middle-income earners. It's always been a priority for me to make sure those people, like myself, can also afford to stay in the city, which also improves the health and attendance numbers in our public schools."

The resolution directs staff to bring back "one or more" of the ordinance changes it calls for by Dec. 14. But staff is already facing a mountain of LDC amendment work thanks to a stack of resolutions this Council and prior Councils have already passed. Balancing all of that work will require reprioritization of existing projects; concerted recruitment efforts in relevant city departments, such as Housing and Planning; as well as the enlistment of outside consultants – all of which is currently underway. With that work, Pool is confident that some of her resolution – perhaps the three-units-in-every-lot ordinance change – will arrive at Council for a vote before the end of the year.