Austin Considering Zoning Tools to Support Affordable Housing Development

The Austin City Council is in the process of drafting, amending, and weighing multiple changes to the city’s zoning code in the hopes of spurring new affordable housing developments without triggering too much political controversy along the way. The city is faced with an affordability crisis that rivals anything in California or New York.

According to an article by Ben Thompson for the Community Impact Newspaper, those measures include a height bonus for affordable housing developments, parking requirement reductions, ADU streamlining, and more.

Closest to the finish line, according to Thompson, is an expansion of the city’s vertical mixed-use (VMU) affordable development program. “The VMU change would create a new category within the program that offers development incentives such as increased height in exchange for affordable housing. Proposed by District 5 Council Member Ann Kitchen late last year, an update called VMU2 would increase the allowed height for participating projects if more affordable units are offered.”

According to data from the city cited in the article, the VMU is the second-most effective development incentives, “second only to the University Neighborhood Overlay, which has spurred denser construction in the West Campus area.” According to the data, the VMU has created nearly 6,800 total housing units. Another 8,900 units are planned or under construction—of which 1,000 will be available at an affordable price.

More details on the other zoning changes under consideration as development incentives can be found in the source article, linked below.