Officials: Zoning changes needed to direct growth

City staff presented a resolution to City Council at its April 8 meeting to initiate changes to the citys zoning code related to multifamily developments.

For years multifamily housing developments have been allowed to occur in three different city zonings: multifamily, C-1 local commercial and C-3 general commercial.

No other [area] city has zoning that open, Georgetown Housing Coordinator Jennifer Bills said. That makes it hard for the city to plan.

Out of four apartment complexes under construction or in the planning process, only two are zoned for multifamily, and about half of the existing apartment complexes are located within a commercial zoning, she said.

One of the problems we pointed out is if someone comes to [council] with a nice picture or drawing of a commercial project and says this is what they are going to do and then two years later the market changes they [could] look at their C-1 or C-3 zoning and they go, Boy, I could do multifamily without even having to go back to City Councilthats a permitted use, City Manager Paul Brandenburg said during a City Council workshop March 25. Thats the problem we are seeing now. There is already indirectly approved multifamily that is sitting out there.

As the housing market continues to rebound and Georgetowns multifamily occupancy rate increases, Bills said, multifamily developers could continue to consider Georgetown for future projects.

Market demand

Finding an apartment to lease in Georgetown has gotten harder in recent years with few new projects being built and market demand increasing, Bills said. The occupancy rate for multifamily housing throughout the city is about 97 percent, and many complexes are completely occupied with a waiting list of people ready to move in, she said.

[The occupancy rate is] pretty high. Any time you get over 93 percent, thats when you start seeing more construction, she said. For the entire Austin [Metropolitan Statistical Area], weve been around 9596 percent. [In Austin] there are a lot of units coming on line because of that pent-up demand.

More than 900 new multifamily units are in the planning stage or under construction in Georgetown, and Bills said how quickly they fill will be an indication of how many more units are needed.

Weve got a lot of it coming, and I think seeing how fast that absorbs will tell us how much more we need, she said. Its a tight market right now. ... Household numbers are still growing, and now more and more people are moving into this area.

Zoning change

City Planning Director Andrew Spurgin said his staff was working to finalize what changes would be made to the zoning requirements for multifamily housing. Plans include requiring a special-use permit for multifamily developments in commercial zoning.

The changes could give more land-use control back to the council, he said.

The councils home rule authority is sort of usurped if multifamily is allowed in areas where council thought there was going to be commercial, Spurgin said. I think councils intent is to assure that multifamily is established in places that council is aware of where its going, and its not being snuck into places where it was not intended.

Spurgin said city staff could also present a proposal to expand the multifamily zoning to two separate zonings with different heights and densities as well as more detailed definitions of multifamily uses in each zone.

The existing [code] allows for 24 dwellings per acre and [buildings] 60 feet in height. There is a concern that that was perhaps too intense, Spurgin said, adding that most of the apartment developments in the area are mostly two to three stories tall.

The current code doesnt contemplate condominium development nor does it clearly explain how we are supposed to review independent-living and some of those adult communities that are just different types of business models than our 10-year-old code really contemplated, Spurgin said.

City staffers are also developing an analysis tool that will allow them to give a more detailed report including information such as what other multifamily developments are in the proposed area and if there are other multifamily housing units planned for the areato City Council when multifamily developments are seeking approval, Bills said.

We want to give council more information when they are approving rezonings, Bills said. Were trying not to cluster too many apartments in one area.

Mayor Pro Tem Tommy Gonzalez said he was looking forward to the more detailed staff reports.

I think we need to know what we are looking at [when] approving this special-use permit type process, we need to know what type [of development it] is and where its going to make sure its compatible and there really is a need, Gonzalez said. Especially because as all of these developers come, there are a lot of good projects out there, but at some point we cant do all multifamily.

Spurgin said some of City Councils concerns come from the amount of stand-alone apartment developments that are occurring.

Our 2030 plan promotes apartments to a degree as a concurrent development with employment centers and mixed-use development, Spurgin said. If [a development] came in at the same time with office space, retail and apartments, it may better fit the intent of the council vision established in the 2030 plan.