Enrique Guerrero guides the Construction trailer as it arrives at construction site on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023 for Affordability Unlocked’s foundation. A recent council resolution could expand a contentious zoning policy that would increase density to previously protected neighborhoods.
Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman
Austin City Council advanced a measure Thursday that could result in a major expansion of the city’s controversial HOME housing policy by allowing denser housing in exempted, single-family neighborhoods.
The City Council voted 9-1 to approve a resolution brought by Council Member Krista Laine directing City Manager T.C. Broadnax to draft amendments aligning HOME with zoning rules across single-family districts and regulating plans and other recent council policies aimed at increasing smaller and more affordable housing types.
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Marc Duchen, Austin City Council member representing district 10, speaks at City Hall on Thursday, March 12, 2026 in Austin. The City of Austin issued a proclamation declaring March 15 “Long COVID Day.”
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
If ultimately adopted as an ordinance, the resolution would allow HOME to override some long-standing neighborhood protections including “Neighborhood Conservation Combining Districts,” or NCCDs, combining districts, regulating plans and overlay zones. The resolution also eases restrictions on lot sizes, setbacks, garages, landscaping and subdivisions.
The vote comes three years after the City Council approved HOME — short for “Home Options for Mobility and Equity” — one of the most sweeping overhauls of Austin’s land development code in decades. The initiative allowed for up to three homes on many lots previously reserved for single-family housing and removed occupancy limits on unrelated adults living together in one unit.
The HOME initiative drew prolonged opposition from neighborhood groups and residents who argued it would fundamentally alter established neighborhoods and accelerate redevelopment. Critics of Thursday’s resolution said the proposal breaks assurances made during the original, and subsequent, HOME debate that neighborhood protections such as NCCDs would remain intact. They also said the measure was brought forth in a way that allowed for limited advance notice or public input.
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Laine previously deferred all questions about the resolution’s scope and transparency to Isabel Webb Carey, a policy staffer who drafted the resolution.
Carey told the Statesman Monday that the intention of the resolution was to explore expansion of the HOME policy and reflected an underlying belief that affordable housing should be allowed in every part of Austin.
“We should be able to build affordable homes everywhere in the city,” Carey said.
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Judge Sherry Statman gives the oath of office to District 6 council member Krista Laine during Austin City Council’s 2025 Inauguration ceremony at Austin City Hall Monday, Jan. 6, 2025.
Mikala Compton/American-Statesman
At the council meeting, Laine argued the resolution’s proposed changes to the city’s land development code were technical in nature and would not create a new policy governing so-called overlays, which impose additional zoning standards in certain neighborhoods.
The resolution “is not a big, new policy shift. Not at all,” she said. “It is a move towards increased consistency, predictability of our land development code in relation to policies that have already been passed.”
Council Member Marc Duchen, who repeatedly criticized both the substance of the proposal and the process surrounding it, warned the resolution represented a major policy shift being advanced without sufficient public scrutiny.
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The only council member to vote against the resolution, Duchen unsuccessfully proposed three amendments Thursday that would have directed Broadnax to propose a policy recommendation rather than specific code amendments and required council members to receive information on community outreach to impacted neighborhoods while exempting Lake Austin and rural residence zoning districts.
He also presented cases where HOME had allowed for luxury housing to replace affordable homes rather than increasing the supply of affordable housing.
“I’m uncomfortable cloaking everything we do under the idea of lowercase affordability when we’re seeing – whether they’re edge cases or not – instances where that’s clearly not happening, or it’s clearly being used for a different purpose,” he said.
Austin City Council member Marc Duchen speaks at a city council meeting onThursday, Sept. 25, 2025.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Council heard more than an hour of public comment on the resolution. Supporters praised the measure for simplifying regulations and increasing housing supply, while opponents criticized what they described as a rushed and opaque process.
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Cody Carr, a builder who has developed homes under the HOME initiative for the past three years, said the measure builds on the policy’s successes and cuts back confusing regulations.
The resolution “continues to expand on what HOME did that worked well, and will continue to expand the opportunities to build smaller, more affordable housing,” Carr said.
Others raised transparency concerns and argued that Thursday’s proposal was inconsistent with how HOME was presented to the public three years ago, when supporters said neighborhood protections would remain in place.
“City council has given up on respecting Austin residents by trying to pass resolutions with no warning, no discussion or no input promise,” resident Catherine Tucek said. “It shows a lack of leadership to vote on another partially designed, half-baked resolution.”
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The Thursday public comment period was the first chance residents and businesses had to weigh in on the resolution; The council often takes public comment on notable policies at work sessions held two days before regular City Council meetings. It’s unclear why the resolution did not appear on Tuesday’s work session agenda.
Duchen previously told the American-Statesman it “should have been shared with council and the public much sooner than it was” while Laine said that “any major changes would still go through a full public process before returning to council as an ordinance.”
Broadnax must return to council with proposed code amendments no later than Dec. 3.
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