A bill aiming to tame rising home prices by enabling home construction on smaller lots wriggled through the Texas Legislature June 1, overcoming opposition from some lawmakers and municipal leaders who fear the proposal will trample municipal land use rules.
The finalized version of Senate Bill 15, should Gov. Greg Abbott sign it into law, will prohibit Texas’ largest cities from forcing developers to build new houses on lots larger than 3,000 square feet in some neighborhoods. The bill’s backers argue the tweak will free homebuilders from some of the regulatory constraints stalling efforts to provide smaller and cheaper residences.
“The housing affordability crisis in Texas is real and we’re facing it head-on, removing large lot size requirements has proven to increase home construction and lower prices,” Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, one of the bill’s lead authors, said in a statement Sunday. “This bill simply recognizes the obvious.”
Senate Bill 15 also takes aim at a litany of other building design rules, forbidding municipal statutes that require homes on “small lots” (those smaller than 4,000 square feet) to have covered parking, off-site parking, or setbacks larger than 5 feet on either side, among other features.
“We are unblocking government regulations from getting in the way of private sector for housing affordability solutions,” Bettencourt said.
The bill’s scope is limited by design. Its prohibitions would only apply to unplatted plots of land at least five acres in size that are already zoned for single-family homes. Only Texas cities with at least 150,000 people, located in counties with least 300,000, would be subject to the strictures.
The legislation, despite its exceptions, still provoked considerable resistance in the House of Representatives.
“This bill is going to allow intense development in what otherwise might be a quiet, single-family area of potentially 10,000 square foot lots,” Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., D-Fort Worth, said from the House chamber dais on Sunday.
Romero also doubts reducing lot size minimums will make homes any less expensive, despite some researchers finding that it can.
“There’s nothing in this bill that says it has to be affordable,” Romero said.
Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth backed her Cowtown colleague.
“Zoning is a local matter, and the cities take a lot of time and consideration and public input when they’re discussing the future of their communities,” Collier said. “And this bill would basically allow the state to dictate how cities control their communities.”
The chamber ultimately voted to send the bill to the governor’s desk in a 78-57 vote. The Senate had approved it unanimously the previous day.
An earlier version of the bill had set the minimum lot size ceiling at 1,400 square feet. Fort Worth and other Tarrant County municipalities laid into the proposal, for many of the same reasons shared by Collier and Romero. Fort Worth’s smallest minimum lot size for detached single family homes is 3,000 square feet, but much of the city is zoned for larger homes.
“Throughout the life of the bill, the City has worked with its State representatives on language that balances the bill’s goal of enhancing housing affordability opportunities with the desire of the City to consider and enforce residential zoning standards at the local level,” a Fort worth spokesperson said of the newest variation of the bill. “Fort Worth has neighborhoods with design standards that have been created to curate distinctive form and character.”