Austin City Council to vote on HOME part 2, land use rules for Project Connect

Austin City Council worked through amendments Tuesday to several major Land Development Code (LDC) changes the body will vote on later this week.

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin City Council worked through amendments Tuesday to several major Land Development Code (LDC) changes the body will vote on later this week.

Among the proposed LDC changes: An Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) overlay on and near the proposed Project Connect light rail line and implementing HOME part two, which could drop minimum lot size requirements from 5,750 square feet to a recently amended 1,800 square feet.

"We have other amendments like an annual impact report, amending compatibility, creating sub districts, civic uses for ground floor activation," said Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool of the work city council did on the proposed changes Tuesday. "These amendments have benefited from the amount of time that we've had since we first introduced HOME a year ago, and then of course we split it into two pieces."

Some Austin groups, like Go Austin Vamos Austin (GAVA) and Community Powered ATX, are against the changes -- even with amendments made this week. They organized outside of City Hall Tuesday.

"We don't feel that Mayor [Kirk] Watson and city council are truly listening, especially not to the most vulnerable residents throughout Austin," said Sol Praxis, an organizer with Community Powered ATX.

As with HOME part one, which allowed more units to be built on a single-family lot, some against the proposals say they're worried developers will take advantage of the less restrictive rules, displacing long-time Austinites.

But Pool said that's not happening.

"Looking at how things have rolled out since HOME opened the doors on Feb 5, we've taken in about 65 applications and that's just a really good pace. And these are individual homeowners, property owners wanting to make some changes on their property which is exactly what I was hoping would happen," she said.

The council will also look at making Austin's compatibility rules less restrictive and making it easier to build electric vehicle charging stations in non-residential areas.

"Thursday we'll have a really robust conversation and hear from folks. I think we've heard a lot of the concerns already and are poised to address them," Pool said.