The Austin City Council voted last month to reduce the minimum lot size from about 5,700 square feet to 2,500 square feet, a decision hailed as a victory by “Yes In My Backyard” housing advocates.
The measure essentially means more houses can be built in a higher-density fashion, theoretically closing the gap on the lack of available affordable homes.
The minimum lot size in Dallas for residential use is, on average, about 5,000 to 7,500 square feet, depending on where the base zoning was established, city officials said.
Austin’s resolution also legalized homes on every lot by right and exempted duplexes up to quadplexes from submitting costly and burdensome site plans.
Would a similar initiative be effective in Dallas?
At least one city council member thinks so, and he’s ready to take his idea to the horseshoe next month.
Taking on Minimum Lot Size
District 1 Councilman Chad West submitted a July 27 opinion column for The Dallas Morning News titled “How missing middle housing can help Dallas,” explaining that a minimum lot-size reduction could lower home prices and, in the long term, reduce the property tax burden.
“At its core, this allows for the construction of ‘missing middle housing,’ or accessory dwelling units, duplexes, quadplexes, and row houses,” West said in his column. “I would like Dallas to begin the process of doing this in our city with two major amendments to Austin’s plan. The first is technical: adjusting the minimum lot size to 1,500 square feet, as it is in Houston. I think this is appropriate as Dallas is more similar to Houston, a global city with a population density of around 3,500 per square mile, as opposed to Austin, a state capital and college town with a population density of around 3,000 per square mile …”
Dallas’ population density is about 3,700 per square mile.
The other amendment, West said, is “values-based” — only allowing construction of missing middle housing on infill plots where a house does not currently exist.
West told daltxrealestate.com on Tuesday that he plans to file in mid-August a five-signature memo outlining the intent to discuss the matter.
“It’s a resolution, so council can’t just unilaterally at the horseshoe change the code citywide on this kind of an issue,” West said. “It’s got to go through the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee, then to [City Plan Commission], then to us. What we can do is pass a resolution that tells the city manager this is a priority and this is what we would like to see come out of it. Staff and CPC figure out the parameters.”
Impact on Neighborhoods
West pointed out that the median home sale price in the working-class 75211 ZIP code of Oak Cliff has jumped from $200,000 to $300,000 in a five-year period.
“Elected officials like myself need to consider bold, future-oriented actions that can do the most good for Dallasites old and new and that will require us to reconsider how we look at zoning and housing regulations,” the councilman wrote. “Part of this effort should include allowing gentle density like the City of Austin recently approved.”
Reducing the minimum lot size is pretty straightforward, West told daltxrealestate.com.
Allowing duplexes and triplexes by right on vacant lots could be more complicated, the councilman added. Under Austin’s resolution, a developer could still demolish a home and then file a permit to build a triplex.
“In my mind, Austin’s resolution on the allowance for this greater density on single-family lots almost encourages developers to take down single-family structures,” West said. “The intent behind my change here is for us to not encourage a rapid destruction of single-family homes so lots can become more densified. Staff has got to figure out how to make that work.”
West pointed to the “good urban planning” of Highland Park by including upfront a mix of housing stock within single-family neighborhoods — the elusive “missing middle housing.”
“Winnetka Heights is one of my historic neighborhoods,” he said. “There are fourplexes and duplexes throughout Winnetka Heights. You don’t notice them because they blend in with everything else, the way they’re designed. If you come up with the appropriate setbacks and design standards, there’s no reason a little more density can’t just blend into the neighborhoods they are a part of.”
West said he has the support for a five-signature memo to at least open the discussion. In addition to setbacks and design standards, West said some of his colleagues are concerned about the impact higher density will have on tree coverage.
“I don’t see this as an overnight deal, but we need to start now because housing prices are increasing more and more rapidly,” West said. “There are five of us that agree in concept right now. We believe in the world of this and are willing to sign on but what ends up in the final [memo] might be changed a little bit.”
Austin-based Texans for Reasonable Solutions, a nonprofit advocacy group, is hosting a happy hour and discussion on housing affordability at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3, at which West will provide opening remarks on the lot size issue.
