AUSTIN, Texas — A South Austin neighborhood that is recognized as a nationally historic neighborhood is worried that current zoning ordinances are causing a housing deficit.
Single Family 3, known as SF-3, is the most common zoning ordinance in Austin neighborhoods. This allows for single-family homes or, at maximum, a duplex to be built on a single lot – depending on the size of the space.
On Kenswood Drive and Alta Vista Avenue, some tri-plexes and four-plexes that were grandfathered into the SF-3 ordinance are being demolished and replaced with single-family homes or duplexes, causing a housing deficit.
Witt Featherston with the Historic Landmark Commission said this area was brought to his attention because of its historic rank, but that it is also a problem around the entire city.
"It’s an unfortunate situation with our current zoning that replacing a four-plex with a four-plex is just not allowed," Featherston said. "It would be a heavy lift to ask zoning to require a minimum number of units, but right now with the current zoning across the city, the max number of units is just so low that, at the macro level, we’re losing housing and we’re never going to get it back.”
Residents of the neighborhood spoke to KVUE but opted not to do so on camera. They say they are worried about the aesthetic of the old neighborhood but understand the need to replace worn-down residences. However, a worry greater than that, they say, is how new builds will potentially change the value of the neighborhood for the worst.
Featherston said SF-3 has a negative domino effect.
"The price of housing goes up on more ‘market-affordable housing,’ and then that’s occupied by someone who can pay for it," Featherston said. "And then the people that can’t [afford it], that continues to shift down until there’s homelessness.”
Featherston said ordinance reform, as a comprehensive and broad effort, is key to making building more housing easier because there is now less room for people where there once was.
"It’s so macro and hyperbolic, but that’s what happens in a housing crisis. People don’t have houses," Featherston said.
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