Austin

Current rule. Austin no longer generally requires off-street motor-vehicle parking. Accessible parking remains regulated, including provisions for qualifying off-site spaces and adjustments. Specific PUD parking provisions can still control. Removing ordinary parking minimums does not remove accessibility, loading or fire-access requirements.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. Retain this reform. Design optional parking and servicing around the building and shared garden; coordinate accessible routes and spaces early.

Current off-street parking code

Current rule. Austin permits qualifying Group R-2 residential buildings through five stories with one exit, up to four dwellings per floor. Four- and five-story buildings face additional conditions, including a 4,000-sq-ft net floor-area limit per floor, sprinkler and alarm provisions, a maximum 20-foot route from unit door to stair, and elevator access. Elevators cannot open into the exit-stair enclosure. The local table does not permit a sixth story on this pathway.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. Publish tested compact stair-and-elevator arrangements and a coordinated approval guide. Study a sixth-story option under Texas §214.301, which authorizes municipalities to permit it subject to safety conditions; state authorization is not itself Austin adoption.

Austin building-code amendments · Texas single-stair enabling law

Current rule. MF-4 and MF-5 have 60-foot base height limits; MF-6 has 90 feet. A height limit alone does not establish a five- or six-story entitlement. Zoning overlays, neighboring-property compatibility, building-code limits and the selected approval pathway also matter.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. Identify locations where a modest five-story courtyard building can use the adopted single-stair provision. Coordinate roof, elevator and fire requirements with the allowed height; assess six stories separately.

Base zoning dimensions · Austin building-code amendments

Current rule. Base floor-area ratio is 0.75:1 in MF-4 and 1:1 in MF-5. Both districts also require at least 800 sq ft of site area per efficiency dwelling, 1,000 per one-bedroom dwelling and 1,200 per dwelling with two or more bedrooms. Applicable bonus programs or state-law pathways may change these limits.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. Replace overlapping capacity restrictions with coordinated standards that allow enough homes inside the permitted envelope while protecting a usable court. Review the combined result, rather than treating height alone as housing capacity.

Base zoning dimensions · MF-4 and MF-5 dwelling limits

Current rule. The base MF-1 through MF-6 districts require an 8,000-sq-ft lot and 50-foot width. HOME Phase 2 allows lots as small as 1,800 sq ft for its small-lot single-family use, but that use allows one dwelling. It does not create a general small-lot apartment entitlement.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. Create a predictable route for independently developable apartment parcels with ordinary 50–60-foot frontages, larger coherent corners and recorded shared-court access. Coordinate subdivision, fire separation and ownership; separate title parcels do not automatically become separate code buildings.

Base zoning dimensions · HOME amendments

Current rule. MF-4 and MF-5 base setbacks are 15 feet at the front and street side, five feet at an interior side and ten feet at the rear. These do not ordinarily produce a continuous party-wall block. Other applicable pathways can modify the base requirements.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. On appropriate streets, allow buildings at a defined street edge and properly fire-separated shared side walls. Reserve deliberate passages and a shared interior court instead of requiring a gap beside every building.

Base zoning dimensions

Current rule. Austin’s SB 840 guidance allows qualifying multifamily or mixed-use housing by right on most commercial properties. The city identifies no floor-area-ratio limit, density up to 54 homes per acre, height equal to the greater of 45 feet or the applicable commercial allowance, and setbacks equal to the lesser of 25 feet or the commercial standard. Industrial exclusions and historic-review rules remain relevant.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. Map eligible small sites and publish a clear route through remaining requirements. Test whether the 54-home-per-acre limit supports the intended courtyard building; a new residential use permission does not guarantee its full capacity.

Austin’s SB 840 implementation

Current rule. The Citywide Density Bonus program requires DBC zoning on an eligible commercial or office base district. It relaxes base floor-area, density, coverage and specified yard rules; DBC15–60 add corresponding feet above base height. It retains design, frontage-use and compatibility conditions. The program’s minimum affordability share is 10%, with different income limits for rental and ownership housing. The October 1, 2026 amendment allows fees instead of on-site units outside the ETOD boundary; within it, that option is limited to ownership housing. City pre-qualification is required before the relevant permit submission.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. Publish small-building examples showing required affordable units or fees, mixed-use frontage, certification steps and remaining dimensional constraints. Keep ordinary courtyard infill workable through base rules as well as voluntary bonus programs.

Citywide Density Bonus ordinance · October 2026 affordability amendment · Density bonus certification

Current rule. DBC rules require a 25-foot compatibility buffer along a shared boundary with a triggering property: one to three dwellings in SF-5 or more restrictive zoning. Resident-only amenities, except a multi-use trail, are prohibited within 25 feet of that property. A planted buffer therefore cannot automatically be treated as an active resident courtyard. Site-specific DBC zoning can modify these compatibility provisions.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. Test shared courts against buffer and amenity rules. Adopt clear standards for usable, accessible shared gardens, with permanent access and maintenance arrangements, while protecting neighboring homes.

Citywide Density Bonus ordinance

Current rule. Site Plan Lite exempts qualifying three- and four-unit projects from site-plan requirements in the city’s zoning jurisdiction. Projects with five to sixteen units qualify for Small Project Site Plans, with reduced review fees, no notification requirement and streamlined review. Building permits, applicable zoning and floodplain requirements still apply.

Courtyard Urbanist recommendation. Test an extension to otherwise compliant small apartment buildings above sixteen homes. A five-story building with four homes on each floor would have twenty homes, illustrating a possible mismatch between the single-stair and streamlined-review thresholds—not a guaranteed site yield.

Residential infill and Site Plan Lite · Austin building-code amendments