Council just passed Draft 2 of Austin’s revised Land Development Code. There’s still one more vote – to be held in late March or early April — to go. Here’s what happens to single-family housing in North Shoal Creek:
- 26 homes on Rockwood, Boxdale, Firwood and Steck are rezoned to R4.
- R4 is the least intense transition zoning and allows for up to 8 units per lot.
- All other single-family homes in North Shoal Creek are rezoned to R2A. R2A allows up to 2 units per lot: a single-family home, a duplex, or a single-family home plus an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit — e.g., garage apartment or “granny flat”)
- An R2A home that qualifies for a preservation bonus qualifies for 3 units: a single family home plus a duplex, or a duplex and an ADU.
Why this matters:
- R4 rezoning violates our North Shoal Creek neighborhood plan, approved by City Council in Aug. 2018, which was designed to maximize density while protecting our core of single family homes.
- District 7 Council Member Leslie Poole, our North Shoal Creek City Council representative, does not agree with the R4 rezoning.
- Rezoning opens our neighborhood up to safety concerns – R4 doesn’t require additional off street parking, which means our streets could potentially have more parked cars, endangering bicyclists and pedestrians.
- Rezoning lowers impervious cover requirements leading to greater flooding concerns, especially for neighbors adjacent to the recently expanded Shoal Creek flood plain on the west side of Rockwood.
Don’t want your home rezoned to R2A or R4? Take action:
- A lawsuit has been filed against this citywide rezoning via the land development code.
- Texas law allows property owners to protest rezoning their property. If the plaintiffs win, a super-majority of council members will be required to pass a zoning change that has been protested.
- Visit http://FileYourProtest.com for an easy, convenient way to protest your rezoning online.
- Read the FAQ at http://FileYourProtest.comfor additional information on your right to protest a rezoning.
- For more information, email development@nscna.org.
File Your Rezoning Protest by March 1 at FileYourProtest.com
These six slides are from a staff presentation given at Council’s February 5th worksession. The first four show examples of R2 zoning, (the closest match to existing single family zoning). Most single-family lots in Austin are 7,000 square feet or larger. In the proposed code, a standard lot is 5,000 square feet.
The last two slides show the R4 zoning applied to Rockwood south of Steck. R4 is the least intense multifamily zoning and has a base of 4 units up to a maximum of 8 units on a 5,000 square foot lot.
