URGENT: Action Needed – Item 26 Threatens Neighborhood Zoning

Hello Neighbors,

Please take action regarding Item 26 on this Thursday’s City Council agenda. This proposal seeks to redefine “single-family” zoning to allow four or more units per lot, drastically altering our neighborhood’s density. This is being rushed through without proper planning for infrastructure capacity or neighborhood impact.

Council Member Zo Qadri co-sponsored this amendment, making it crucial that we analyze its impact on our neighborhoods—particularly regarding our historic districts and long-overlooked neighborhood plan.

Why this matters

Infrastructure Strain: Our roadways, water systems, and emergency services cannot support this sudden influx of density without major upgrades. Our existing infrastructure will be overwhelmed. This is putting the cart before the horse.
- Neighborhood Character: Threatens to replace existing homes with high-density, investor-driven developments, bypassing established neighborhood plans.
- Rushed Process: Language was released at the last minute, allowing little time for public input.

Action Required

If you share these concerns, please consider contacting the Mayor and City Council via this link beforeThursday’s vote and tell them to oppose Item 26. We need to encourage all constituents to provide feedback so it can be considered before any final decision is made. Here is a suggested message:

Please delay your vote or remove Item 26 from this week’s agenda. This proposal risks undermining established neighborhood character and allows increased density without corresponding infrastructure improvements. Such significant changes require more analysis, transparency, and public input.

Thank you,

Your Name

Act Quickly!

Decisions made this week could shape our neighborhood for years to come. Taking a moment to speak up now can make a real difference.

Thank you for staying informed and engaged!

Here is an article from todays Austin American Statesman about Item 26 –

Controversial Austin proposal could quietly extend housing rules into more neighborhoods

Critics say the measure is being advanced with little scrutiny;

supporters say changes would still face public review.

ByChaya Tong, Staff Writer Austin American Statesman

UpdatedMay 5, 2026 10:05 a.m.

Council Member Krista Laine speaks during a press conference regarding homelessness on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. Laine authored a resolution that critics say could lead tothe expansion of controversial zoning changes into protected neighborhoods.

A City Councilresolutionup for a vote Thursday could set in motion changes to Austin’s zoning rules that would significantly expand controversial land use regulations into historically exempted neighborhoods – a measurecritics say is being advanced with little public scrutiny.

Three years ago, Austin City Council approved the contentious “Home Options for Mobility and Equity,” or HOME, initiative as part of a broader push to diversify housing types and increase supply. The changes — among the most sweeping to the city’s land development code in decades — included allowing for up to three units on many lots previously limited to single-family homes and removing restrictions on the number of unrelated adults who can live in a housing unit.

The HOME initiative drewprolonged and intense opposition, in part because of concerns it would fundamentally alter the character of historic single-family neighborhoods and accelerate redevelopment.

Now, a new resolution brought forward by Council Member Krista Laine could further expand those changes.

Theresolutiondirects City Manager T.C. Broadnax to draft amendments aligning zoning rules across all single-family districts and regulating plans with HOME and other recent City Council direction on smaller housing types.

In practice, such changes could require revisiting — and potentially overriding — existing neighborhood-level regulations. Those regulations include so-called “Neighborhood Conservation Combining Districts,” or NCCDs, combining districts, regulating plans, and conditional overlays, Austin Planning spokesperson Caleb Pritchard said in a statement.

“This change is likely to expand the applicability of HOME to more neighborhoods,” Pritchard added.

Laine deferred questions about the resolution’s scope and transparency to Isabel Webb Carey, a policy staffer who drafted the resolution. In a written statement, Laine stressed that “any major changes would still go through a full public process before returning to council as an ordinance.”

When asked whether the resolution is intended to allow HOME standards to supersede neighborhood-level protections such as NCCDs, Carey said the goal is exploratory.

“The intention is for staff to explore that,” Carey told the Statesman.“There’s nothing prescriptive in there being like, ‘HOME is going to override NCCDs,’“ she said. “We’re just asking staff to come back and say, ‘Should we do this?’”

Construction underway in 2023 at affordable homeownership development Persimmon Point. The HOME ordinance allowed for up to three housing units on single-family lots. Carey said the resolution reflects an underlying policy position that HOME should apply citywide.

“We should be able to build affordable homes everywhere in the city,” she said. “Everyone should be able to live in the city affordably.”

She added that any resulting ordinance would go through a full public process and noted that city staff could ultimately recommend against proposed changes.

The resolution is notably missing from the agenda for council’s pre-meeting work session Tuesday, where the public often has a chance to comment on major policies ahead of final votes later in the week. That means the resolution will not receive a separate public hearing before it is decided Thursday.

After the Statesman’s deadline, Carey said a revised version of the resolution and an amendment were being prepared to clarify its intent and direct staff to study options “given the legal liability at stake” and concerns raised by various stakeholders.

Still, critics argue the resolution’s broad language — coupled with its timing — obscures what could amount to a significant policy shift.

Council Member Marc Duchen said the “extraordinarily broad” measure risks breaking commitments made when HOME was first approved and said it is “certain to be exploited by land developers and other special interests.”

“When the controversial HOME initiative was passed, its supporters swore Austin’s longstanding neighborhood plans and protections would be honored,” Duchen said in a statement. “If Thursday’s resolution is approved, tens of thousands of residents across the city may ultimately see their neighborhoods dismantled, their property taxes rise, and affordable housing in their areas replaced with luxury condos.”

Duchen also criticized the process, saying changes of this scale should have been introduced earlier.

“This resolution should have been shared with the full council and community much sooner, because changes like these need public scrutiny from day one,” he said.

Austin resident Peter Journeay-Kaler, who lives in a HOME-exempted neighborhood near the University of Texas campus, said that to his knowledge, no one in his neighborhood association or others with an NCCD protection in place had received any information about the potential code change.“This already, to me, feels like something that hasn’t gotten the public input that’s needed for people to say how they feel about it,” he said. Journeay-Kaler said he supported parts of HOME when it passed, particularly a provision that decreased lot sizes, but is concerned the Thursday resolution goes further than it appears. “I don’t really feel like this is actually a technical fix,” Journeay-Kaler said. “This is trying to put what could be a pretty major citywide rewriting of the zoning rules into something that sounds less newsworthy.”

Journeay-Kaler’s neighbor Pam Bell, who has lived in the neighborhood since the 1970s, said she has seen no outreach about the proposal and worries it will result in the dissolution of her NCCD. Her biggest fear is the area will be overrun with what she called “stealth dorms,” where students cram into large developments.

Bell said her City Council member, Zo Qadri, explicitly told her neighborhood association — both in 2024 and again in February — that HOME would only apply to single-family zoning outside of NCCDs.

Qadri is co-sponsoring Laine’s resolution.

The measure, he said in a written statement, is “not about eliminating NCCDs, but about ensuring we have clarity, transparency, and a process that works for our community.” “I’ve heard from residents who are concerned about how NCCDs can impact the ability to build missing middle housing in their neighborhoods,” Qadri said, using a term that refers to housing for middle-income residents. “There are valid perspectives on all sides, and we need a clearer understanding of how these policies are working together today.” Qadri said he planned to propose a “friendly amendment to strengthen the language of the resolution” but did not specify what it would do.“We want to make sure the final version clearly reflects the goal of providing clarity and direction,” he said.

The resolution’s two other co-sponsors, Mayor Pro Tem Chito Vela and Council Member Jose Velasquez, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. Council Member Ryan Alter, who has requested to be a co-sponsor, also did not respond.

Mayor Kirk Watson declined comment through spokesperson Rebecca Szeto who said the mayor doesn’t comment on council items until after votes are taken.

The Statesman reached out to other council members for comment but did not hear back.

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