Recent changes to medium-density housing regulations aim to support local housing affordability.
In a nutshell
Round Rock City Council approved measures amending zoning and development code as well as the city’s comprehensive plan Aug. 13. The changes include:
- Reduced requirements for concrete parking structures
- Removing a rule capping multifamily at 20% of the city’s housing stock
- Eliminating a rule dictating how close a multifamily project can be to other similar developments and single-family homes
- Renaming the type of zoning from medium-density multifamily to medium-density urban multifamily
- Refining the definition of medium-density to five stories in height with no limit on the number of units
What it means
Round Rock Planning and Development Services Director Brad Dushkin said the updates come as the previous iteration of guidelines around medium-density development made it difficult for developers to build.
The standards had last been updated in 2012, he said, during a previous population boom, in which several garden-style apartment complexes with parking visible from the street were popping up across the city. Requirements for parking structures at the time were intended to enhance the appearance of this type of housing, but now make these types of projects financially unfeasible for developers.
“There’s still people moving here,” Dushkin said. “There’s still need—there’s still a need for housing, but our development standards are kind of in this other era with a different policy and a different economic conditions.”
The details
New requirements for medium-density housing under the medium-density urban multifamily zoning district include:
- Having buildings closer to sidewalks with parking away from the street
- Counting carports, tuck-under garages and other types of covered parking to meet garage parking minimums, which were increased from 25% to 35% of total parking in a development
- Coverage requirements for open-air stairways
- Balconies facing adjacent single- or two-family homes must be of a Juliet style, with no occupyable space outside of a sliding door.
- Additional updates to this type of zoning can be viewed on the meeting agenda.
