Some Austinites fear the city’s rewrite of the land use code could still lead to families being pushed out of their long time homes.
To that, Austin’s Mayor Steve Adler said while they work on adding more housing supply and choices, the new land use code also also needs to protect existing homes. “Under the existing code, we’re finding that people are tearing down smaller homes, building homes that are two times as large, many fold more expensive, and that kind of thing is contributing, not only to the affordability issues we have, but the loss of people.” Adler added, incentivizing people to maintain current homes needs to be part of the new code.
But some people fear their home or area will see an upzoning, changing the rules for the very ground their current homes stands on from single family to multi family. to those fears, Mayor Adler answers Council told City Manager Spencer Cronk, they wanted to make sure that, in general, upzoning be accompanied with requirements for affordability, and beleives that’s the important thing to do. That’s as he explained we need more housing supply and housing choice, “We need more duplexes, and triplexes and quads. The kind of housing stock that exists in many cities across the country and the world but for some reason has never really developed in Austin.”
Adler said it’s important to help make sure the people living in Austin can stay in Austin and increasing supply is part of that solution. The mayor hopes to see a first reading of the new land code agreed upon by council by the end of the year.
(Photo:Newsradio KLBJ 590am/99.7fm/Jon Cooley)
