Proposed Austin Land Development Code Changes (San Antonio, Spring: apartments, rent, houses)

[DCtoTejas]

Summary of the proposed changes:

• Allow up to three housing units, including tiny homes and recreational vehicles (RVs), on a single-family (SF) zoned property > 5750 sq ft, 2 story height requirements, and building and impervious cover percentages 40 and 45%
• Revise regulations that apply to a property with 2 housing units - lot size reduced to 5750, some other changes
• Remove restrictions on the number of unrelated adults living in a housing unit  - up to 16 unrelated adults in EACH unit

https://www.austintexas.gov/watson-w...reYouveGotMail


https://publicinput.com/Customer/Fil...c-29a96a261c75




A lot of this is being driven by the need for higher density along transit lines in order to be eligible for federal funding, another radical project that also needed to fail many times before they finally got it through. To be clear this proposal is for the entire city.



Instructions on how to protest are here - https://publicinput.com/v1473#3. If enough people protest, they will be forced to pass this with a super majority.

[cheeva]

My predictions:

1. Homes with bedrooms on the first floor will become increasingly rare and more valuable.
2. SFHs on large lots will become rare and more valuable.
3. Flooding will get worse, despite attempts to mitigate it (Dove Springs is effed). The first major flood event is going to catch everyone off-guard and will pull 1000's homes into the FEMA 100yr flood plain.
4. Traffic will get worse
5. Parts of Austin without HOAs are going to plummet in value when halfway houses/frat houses start popping up in the neighborhood.
6 Ashbeigh will finally stop complaining, and will buy a house....in San Antonio.

[DCtoTejas]

I keep rereading their pdf and feel like it is incomplete for the new 3 unit regs, not sure if the min lot size and height requirements apply to it or only the proposed changes for 2 unit properties. Edit: I also missed something huge that is not covered in the summary pdf - allowing existing SF zoned lots to subdivide into two minimum 2500 sq ft lots! That's possibly the biggest change of all.


Interesting point cheeva about HOA's, I guess they can be more restrictive? Depends on how their bylaws are setup?


There is no way my neighborhood could handle the additional traffic and parking this would eventually cause. Part of me is thinking this is a negotiating ploy to get the changes they really need around the rail lines, but, I'm sure they will take this if they can get away with it.

[cheeva]

Density only lowers prices temporarily. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Austin is $1500, and the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan is $4200. Density is good for spurring economic growth, but in the long run it will lower the quality of life, and do nothing for affordability. People want SPACE. The pandemic and WFH proved this, when NYC and SF emptied out.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by cheeva

My predictions:

1. Homes with bedrooms on the first floor will become increasingly rare and more valuable.
2. SFHs on large lots will become rare and more valuable.
3. Flooding will get worse, despite attempts to mitigate it (Dove Springs is effed). The first major flood event is going to catch everyone off-guard and will pull 1000's homes into the FEMA 100yr flood plain.
4. Traffic will get worse
5. Parts of Austin without HOAs are going to plummet in value when halfway houses/frat houses start popping up in the neighborhood.
6 Ashbeigh will finally stop complaining, and will buy a house....in San Antonio.

There’s only one house I would buy in San Antonio and I’m pretty sure the people living there will die in that house so highly unlikely. Nice lil trill job, though. I will never ever be a “I live in Austin! Oh…I mean, San Antonio” girl. That is my biggest pet peeve. Have a good weekend!

[Trainwreck20]

I haven't looked at the latest iteration, but did pay quite a bit of attention to the previous CodeNext and the more recent state legislation that almost became law. If this is along those lines:
- The areas with HOAs will not be affected at all;
- The inner, old neighborhoods will:
a) Start to see some immediate garage apartments and MIL 'suites' built adjacent to existing strutures
b) Start to see an increase in tear-downs resulting in a rebuild that is two independent units or more duplex-like.

Two story houses will definitely be favored - the 40/45 percent impervious cover will be a limiting factor.

Curious to see if some of those inner neighborhoods try to start HOAs - I suspect some will try, but the vast majority of the people (even people opposed to the changes) will not want to reduce the value of their property by joining a limiting HOA.

Ironically, CodeNEXT was probably much more limiting and would have been a much better deal in most people's minds. If you recall, it was 'shot down' due to not individually sending notifications to every home-owner in the city.....

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by cheeva

My predictions:

1. Homes with bedrooms on the first floor will become increasingly rare and more valuable.
2. SFHs on large lots will become rare and more valuable.
3. Flooding will get worse, despite attempts to mitigate it (Dove Springs is effed). The first major flood event is going to catch everyone off-guard and will pull 1000's homes into the FEMA 100yr flood plain.
4. Traffic will get worse
5. Parts of Austin without HOAs are going to plummet in value when halfway houses/frat houses start popping up in the neighborhood.
6 Ashbeigh will finally stop complaining, and will buy a house....in San Antonio.

1/2 You are 100% wrong.

It will take 30-50 years for you to see any substantial difference. The vast majority of people arent going to tear down their existing houses to do this. Some developers will but it will take decades for anything substantial to happen.

The same goes for the reduction in parking requirements. Some people think that means all of a sudden everyone is going to tear out all their existing parking

3. If this happens it has nothing to do with the LDC. The amount of infill development is small

4. traffic will always get worse. However density and reduced parking will allow more retail to be colocated with the density and also make transit more viable.

5. this is a dumb take. House values in dense areas go up. More likely it is going to be immigrant families living all the in same home. Lots of minorities in an area could cause property values to go down. Who cares? Property values going down is another name for affordability

[Need4Camaro]

Regarding #4 I will be fair on this.

I chose Leander to be near the rail station and it served me pretty well while I was working near Domain but after transitioning into remote I pretty much never use it. I drive everywhere I go now. I do still like having it available to use but as things currently are the only time I could for see myself using it is if I were going to an event in Downtown and didn't want to deal with parking.. I think, most people in the Austin metro still prefer to drive than use transit that is currently available or will be available in the decades to come.. There is technically only one city in the entire country that has 50% transit commuter usage and that is, as you have guessed, NYC. Even Chicago, which is the runner up and is much denser than Austin will be for eons to come, falls below 30% ridership vs automotive commuter ship.. ..This is just stating that even in the densest population center of America, the majority of people will still travel by car.. ..I don't think it's necessarily bad to improve transit, but Austin's City Council seems to have a natch for botching major improvements on roads in favor of transit that seems to never materialize... like the city council is currently doing by trying to botch the I-35 improvements with an climate study, as if hundreds of cars sitting idling on a linear parking lot isn't bad for the air quality either.

Project Connect was a great start and was something I also initially supported but they have seemingly cancelled the subway project and the line to the airport as well while the costs to deploy the project have increased. Then they removed parking minimums and replaced it with basically.. ..nothing.. ..I think both modes of transportation are equally important and it seems neither party will acknowledge that.

As far as density goes, I don't particularly see anything wrong with it, although the 16 occupant maximum does kind of irk me, I will be fair and say it is highly unlikely that any residence will reach that many people in a single occupancy. Density will be necessary as Austin grows, but they also need to be willing to make more land viable for development, improve schools out east and most importantly, approve building permits faster.

[Austinite101]

Why are people opposed to removing parking mins? It seems like people saw this headline and interpreted it as “F you and your car, we’re mandating no more parking anywhere”.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Austinite101

Why are people opposed to removing parking mins? It seems like people saw this headline and interpreted it as “F you and your car, we’re mandating no more parking anywhere”.

People were told that this is what it means. Told by the same people to 'let the market decide' pretty much everything but then freak out when the market decides something that might not go 'their way' (even if it really doesn't impact them).

In reality, it means more parking on the streets, I suppose, which can be annoying.