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McMansion Ordinance - be prepared

Posted on Jan 14th, 2009 by Doug Marsh VP, CR, CAPS, GBP  |  1 Comments

McMansion Ordinance- Be prepared

In October of 2006 the City of Austin enacted the McMansion Ordinance.  This ordinance was created to restrict building out of scale, too large on a lot remodels, homes and/or duplexes.  The Task Force that helped write this ordinance was initially composed of 3 Architects, 4 Neighborhood representatives, 1 Inner City Affordable housing  Representative, 4 Developers, and 3 General Contractors.   It became clear early on in the process that the City of Austin would adopt the Task Force’s recommendations and move toward more restrictions on building in the central city area in spite of heavy Citizen protest at the initial council meetings at City Hall. As time wore on in the process individuals dropped out for various reasons: not enough time in their schedule and the dawning realization that the Neighborhood restrictive approach was supported by the City Council.   The main work of the Task Force was handled by about 8 people with only one representative of the Building community.  This whole process was brought about by numerous Builders, Remodelers, Architects maximizing the floor area and scale of a building in mainly SF 3 areas within older neighborhoods.  A lot of the housing stock in these neighborhoods was comprised of smaller 1 story houses and some of the buildings going up next door were, in effect dwarfing, these smaller structures.  The abuses were primarily driven by more square footage on a lot equals more money and Clients wanting large living spaces in the central city area.  Feeding into this were ongoing issues with duplexes being built in SF 3 zones which most neighborhood representatives did not like and it became clear that this was a zoning question; parking issues left over from the abusive practice of building Super Duplexes that stuffed as many bodies into a structure as possible for maximizing rental returns thus creating street parking issues; concerns about overdevelopment which was impacting impervious cover/drainage issues.
The Neighborhood representatives were upset.  The wanted to shut down these abuses and had the Architectural representatives and their qualifications on the Task Force to support their cause.  These Architects lived in the very neighborhoods in question and of course were fully in support of curtailing these building issues.  The same process was occurring in other parts of the nation and Palo Alto California’s ordinance was widely used, in the beginning, as a guide for where to go in this process.  One can read and should read the Ordinance if one is planning a project or consult with a Builder or Architect:  it is hugely impactful on the building practice within the designated area within the City of Austin.  
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/zoning/downloads/061808_revised_ordinance_effective062808.pdf
    There was a definite feeling during the process that there would be unintended consequences to this Ordinance and this has proven to be the case.   The City Council easily adopted the Task Force recommendations and it went on the books in October of 2006.  In March of 07 the Task Force reconvened to measure the effects of the Ordinance and it was evident that most of the members of the Task Force had been informed of or, with a few of the members, had firsthand experience with the effects.  Some of the restrictions were slightly eased during this process and the strikethroughs remain on the published Ordinance. Today the ongoing main breakdown occurs with the City of Austin staff interpretation, understanding, and enactment of the Ordinance in the field.  The staff is still in the beginning process of implementation and there isn’t a manual for the public and/or building community to understand fully what is required to handle the issues that inevitably arise from building within the McMansion area.