CODENext: CIty of Austin Study on Revisions in Land Use Code to Promote Construction of Affordable Housing
Full text of study is available for download here: “Developing Complete Communities for all Austinites.”
CODENEXT: SHAPING THE AUSTIN WE IMAGINE
Executive Summary
Household affordability is a growing concern to more and more Austinites. This code prescription discusses the affordability challenges Austinites face in housing and transportation costs as well as commercial space for small businesses, cultural organizations, and venues. As CodeNEXT is focused on revising the land development code, this prescription identi es needed changes to Austin’s Land Development Code that can help promote affordability. It must be noted that many other actions outside of land development regulations are needed in order to comprehensively address our affordability challenge. Thus, CodeNEXT alone cannot resolve all of Austin’s affordability problems.
In order to make the necessary regulatory changes, tradeoffs will need to be made. The tradeoffs identi ed in the prescription are recommended because they are seen as bene cial to the community in light of best practices, best available information, and alignment with the goals of Imagine Austin. These tradeoffs include:
1.How might we increase housing supply and diversity to increase affordability while preserving what is unique and special about Austin?
In order to achieve a diversity of price points to accommodate a wider range of Austinites, a diversity of building types and unit sizes are needed. Concerns about development issues including the changing built environment, parking and traf c patterns, and exacerbated ooding can be mitigated through built form and design; examples include promoting more Missing Middle housing options near mass transit and bike facilities, and through improved environmental regulations. Missing Middle readily ts into neighborhoods and can add to the character as seen in neighborhoods like Bouldin, Clarksville, and Hyde Park when calibrated to respect the existing scale and proportion of existing housing stock. Missing Middle housing can be developed to provide a price point that is more affordable than single-family units.
Increasing the supply of housing where appropriate could increase the amount and diversity of available housing, which could then slow Austin’s increasing housing prices. Form-based standards can help address the concerns about the size and scale of a building while applying more permissive parking and density standards near mobility infrastructure such as transit stops. Trading proximity to transit for car ownership can increase affordability. The prescriptions focus on:
• Revising and expanding the application Density Bonus programs.
• Promoting housing diversity in targeted areas such as Imagine Austin Activity Centers and Corridors. • Providing more exible development standards to promote housing diversity.
• Simplifying the permitting process.
2.How might we promote mobility choices to ensure affordability while enhancing and maintaining neighborhood character?
-
Having access to various transportation options (transit, walking, biking) provides opportunities for people to reduce household costs associated with owning a vehicle. Placing more and diverse housing near transit, safe and consistent sidewalks, bike lanes, retail, and of ces allows more people to consider riding a bike, walking, or taking transit to their daily destinations. Adding density and diversity can cause concern about large development near single-family neighborhoods, additional traf c, and parking problems. The form-based standards will ensure appropriate building scale and compatible structures. Prescriptions include:
-
Integrating transit-oriented development standards into form-based code standards and applying the standards near high-capacity transition stations.
• Development standards into form-based code standards that support transportation choices such as local transit, bike infrastructure and walking.
• Reducing parking minimums in areas targeted for compact development.
3.How might we have an ef cient development review process while ensuring development meets all code requirements?
A lengthy process with complex regulations does not guarantee better development results for Austin. A more clear, simple, predictable, and ef cient administrative process for the code will allow for greater certainty in development, and a faster determination on whether a project is approved or rejected. This review process can be more ef cient and still allow a public voice. It will enable and enhance enforceability of the code, and contribute to reduced regulatory costs, which could be passed to the owner or renter. Prescriptions include revising the organization of the Land Development Code and eliminating con icting code prescriptions.
4.How might we create affordability while supporting environmental regulations?
Public health and safety is essential to the City of Austin. Ensuring that Austinites are safe and comfortable is of utmost importance. In areas that have known hazards such as ooding, protecting public health and safety is the City’s top priority. The same is true for those parts of Austin that have known critical environmental features such as aquifer re- charge zones. Given these constraints, our community discussion centers on how to strike a balance with other public bene ts such as affordable, attainable housing and commercial space. Prescriptions include maintaining the environ- mental regulations as identi ed in the Natural and Built Environment Code Prescription.
5.How might we promote affordable housing, and venues for small business and cultural arts while supporting the character of our existing neighborhoods?
Incentivizing more affordable housing and commercial space will help retain and attract musicians, artists, and small business. There will be concerns by some Austinites about providing the supply and diversity of development needed to provide opportunities for affordability, but there are regulatory changes that can help address these concerns. Failing to address the regulatory costs of development could cause a loss of not only people such as musicians, artists and service workers, but also of places we gather such as small business and cultural venues. Prescriptions include:
-
Allowing for retail and commercial uses by right, including culture and creative uses, in areas where form-based zones have been applied.
-
Revising the Density Bonus Program in targeted areas by adding preservation of an existing creative venue or business as a Community Bene t.
-
Expand the opportunity for live/work units in form-based code districts.
- - - -
FROM THE INTRODUCTION
Affordability. It’s a word painfully familiar to Austinites, and the reasons for our City’s lack of affordability are many. All too often we hear about Austinites priced out of their homes and neighborhoods due to rising rents, skyrocketing home prices, increased utility bills, and higher property taxes. With thousands of people moving to Austin each year, the city’s housing supply has not
kept pace with Austin’s rapid population growth. This trend has accelerated housing price appreciation, contributing to a shortage of housing that is affordable and attainable for many Austinites.
We also hear about beloved iconic businesses and cultural venues displaced or forced to close for similar reasons. Affordability affects all of us directly or indirectly, and includes (but is not limited to) people such as seniors, those in on a xed income or in the low and middle income brackets, musicians and artists, service workers, and families with children. Austin was once a relatively affordable place for people of various income levels to live, but it
is now at risk of becoming increasingly unaffordable, as shown in the 2014 Comprehensive Housing Market Study.
There is extensive research about Austin’s affordability challenges. Here are a few points to consider:
-
Austin has the highest rent in Texas 1.
-
While various reports differ, Austin is often listed as one of the top-20
most expensive cities in America to rent2 .
-
In the last ve years, median home prices in the city have gone up nearly
50% while the median household income has increased 2.5%. In 2015,
the average priced home became the highest in Austin’s history 3.
-
A family making the median income can no longer qualify for a loan to
buy a median priced home in Austin 4.
-
Best practices indicate that affordability is maintained when a person
or family pays less than 45% of their income on housing (30%) and transportation (15%). On average, Austinites spend around 48% on housing and transportation. And that’s the average, many in our community pay much more than that 5.
The Housing Market Study identi ed four major constraints related to attaining affordable housing.
“Affordable housing” Dwelling units available for sale or rent that are deemed affordable to low- and mod- erate-income households. It
is also housing that does not create an economic burden for a household and allows residents to meetother basic needs on a sustainable basis.”
“Household affordability” The ability of a household to afford its housing and associ- ated costs, including rent or mortgage, transportation and utilities.
-
1.A shortage of deeply affordable rental units (primarily those renting for less than $500/month) for renters earning less than $25,000 per year
2.Geographically limited housing opportunities:
-
a. Affordable rentals are scarce west of I-35.
- b. Homes available for $250,000 or less are increasingly concentrated in northeast, far south, and southeast Austin.
3. Rising housing costs in a number of established neighborhoods, especially in the central city, that are redeveloping, which could cause long-time residents to seek more affordable housing elsewhere.
4. A growing need for affordable housing near transit and services, to provide a wider array of housing choices, and to mitigate the nancial impact of rising transportation costs.
While CodeNEXT can create additional opportunities for affordable housing beyond what exist today, a new Land Development Code will not be the solution for Austin’s affordability challenges. Many other factors contribute to Austin’s lack of affordability including housing supply and demand, labor and construction costs, tax and utility rates, access to convenient mobility options, land development patterns, and capital investments made by the City and its partners, including funds to construct affordable housing and mobility improvements. Pairing a new code with other tools, mechanisms, policy changes, initiatives and resources (such as enhanced City public infrastructure participation, tax abatements, fee waivers and low income housing tax credits, grants and low interest nancing, to name a few) provide the greatest opportunity for the City of Austin and the private sector to begin to address affordability in a coordinated manner.