Public Hearing on Interim Standards

Allandale neighbors,
   
At 6pm, this Thursday, at city hall in downtown Austin, is a public hearing on proposed interim standards for building in residential areas of Austin.
   
In my opinion, this is an important hearing, and I hope some of you will join me in being there to either testify, or simply lend your support of those who do.

1) Problem:
To deal with the problem of the overly large house and the stealth dorms.  I haven't seen this YET in Allandale.  That does not mean that it is not already here.  This afternoon I did see it CLOSE to Allandale.  I drove to 45th street, between Shoal Creek and Mopac, and turned south, out of Allandale, on Bull Creek.  I went south to 39th street, then east(left) a short block, and then right (south) on Ridgelea.  I clocked it at less than a mile from Allandale.  At that point, you can see what are variously called McMansions, or filling huge spaces, towering over the existing houses.  There was a good article on this, using examples from old west Austin, on the front page of Saturday's Austin-American Statesman.
   
2) When and where of the public hearing this Thursday at 6pm:
   http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/consent/default.htm
   
re the ongoing 'McMansion' discussion, this is from last Thursday's city council minutes:
   
[item] 18. Set a public hearing on an ordinance establishing interim development regulations, including a moratorium, relating to the construction and remodeling of certain single family residential development. (Date and time: February 9, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, 301 West 2nd Street) (Council Member Brewster McCracken, Council Member Betty Dunkerley and Council Member Lee Leffingwell)

The public hearing was set for February 9, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, 301 West 2nd Street.

I hope you will join me, in being there, in support of this legislation.
   
More on this is below:
   
Best regards,
   
John Keohane
5702 Wynona Avenue
Austin, TX  78756
(512) 371-3853
keohane@prodigy.net
Zoning Chair
Allandale Neighborhood Association

Comments

[Robert Nash]

A 'McMansion moratorium' would cost us
Robert Nash, LOCAL CONTRIBUTOR
Wednesday, February 08, 2006

We've all seen them — those less-than-classy, large, new houses sitting on lots where teeny post-war cottages used to be. Understandably, many neighbors are offended and want to do something about it.

However, the so-called "McMansion moratorium" is not the solution. On Thursday, the Austin City Council will hold a public hearing and consider the moratorium, which would effectively prohibit any larger homes from being built until March, when the council will consider more detailed ways to curb out-of-scale homes.

The stereotypical "evil, greedy developers" are far from the only people who would be severely affected by this moratorium. It also could flush millions of dollars in home values down the toilet.

A case in point is my mother, who lives in a crumbling cottage that our family bought in Clarksville in 1980 for $50,000. She's a poor school teacher struggling to pay the taxes on her house, which is now valued at nearly $500,000. She loves her neighborhood and doesn't want to sell and move to the 'burbs. To that end, she's been planning to replace her house with a neighborhood-appropriate duplex and sell one side, which would allow her finally to be mortgage-free but remain in the neighborhood she loves.

Similar duplex condos have been built in Clarksville, and the neighbors like them. They gently increase density, moving the neighborhood toward the walkable, transit-friendly place the city says it wants to be. But under the city's proposed rules, my mother would be out of luck.

Families who bought a small, old home in an inner city neighborhood before they had children might not be able to remodel and add rooms as their families grow. How many families are now working with architects on remodeling plans? How long will this moratorium delay their plans? How much interest might they have to pay while they're stopped in their tracks? How many people are trying to sell a home right now whose sale will be killed because of the uncertainty of this rash policy?

If my mother is able to build her duplex, if other homeowners are able to remodel to accommodate their growing families, the city's tax base expands and we have more money for things like public schools. On the other hand, if people who have been playing by the rules, paying their taxes and planning to expand the use of their property summarily have their planned use yanked out from under them, then they would be well within their rights to demand that the tax valuation be lowered — dramatically — which would mean plummeting tax revenue.

Yes, maybe the rules need to be tweaked so that specific problems associated with big new houses can be addressed, but the impact of this blanket moratorium has not been thought through. There is no need to throw the baby out with the bath water. I urge people to call City Council members and ask them to cool it.

Nash, an Austin native, is a real-estate investor who has built small-scale developments in the central city.