Council compromises on new home development regulations
Council compromises on new home development regulations
Written by Christi Covington Friday, 22 August 2008
Task force may reconsider adding more visitability standards in the future
In an effort to make homes more “visitable” for the disabled, the Austin City Council considered a possible ordinance amendment this spring at the initiative of former Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley that would have affected all new single-family projects and duplexes in the city limits.
One element of the proposal would have required builders to have at least one no-steps access point, meaning visitors must have the ability to enter the home at some entrance without climbing stairs.
Another would have mandated lever handles on all first floor doors. Any city-funded housing, such as those in the SMART Housing program, already have to meet all these requirements, but the amendment would have expanded the standards into the private sector.
After outcry from homebuilders and architects, only two of the seven proposed regulations were adopted. Now, in one first floor bathroom developers must add extra reinforcement into the framing so handle bars can be easily installed without ripping sheetrock. One first floor bathroom must also have a 30-inch clearing; because of the framing, that actually translates into a 32-inch door. Following adoption by the council in late June, the new regulations will go into effect in January.
However, the other standards considered currently set aside could easily make a return to the agenda, said Leon Barba, assistant director of the Watershed Protection and Development Review Department.
He is waiting to hear from council and the city manager’s office so he can develop a task force, which would initially create incentive programs, encouraging developers to voluntarily make adjustments for the disabled community.
Fee waivers would be an unlikely option. Instead, Barba envisions incentives such as increased impervious cover, allowing developers to build more on the land than typically allowed. He would like it to be a consistent provision, even for the properties within the more sensitive portions of the Edwards Aquifer.
“If you build bigger hallways, then you need more footprint,” he said. “I really hate to have it where it’s this part of town and not that part of town because that would blow my inspectors’ routine.”
Barba said the council suggested it might want to make more visitability standards mandated as originally proposed, if builders do not initiate them voluntarily.
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