COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – College Station is one of the fastest-growing cities in Texas, but it can’t simply expand its borders to keep up. Under Texas law, the city cannot grow its corporate limits outward. So how does a landlocked city house more people?
The answer, city planners say, is middle housing.
Since 2022, College Station has been pushing a new zoning strategy called middle housing, a flexible mix of housing types designed to fill the gap between towering apartment complexes and quiet single-family neighborhoods. Think townhomes, duplexes, and small multiplexes, dense enough to add housing supply but scaled to fit within existing neighborhoods without dramatically changing their character.
“You can’t expand your boundaries as your corporate limits,” said Anthony Armstrong, College Station’s Director of Planning and Development Services. “And so you look to get density inside the city limits to make sure you can still house your citizens and get people close to the things and services they need.”
The strategy comes as College Station has grappled for years with housing demand, particularly near Texas A&M’s campus.
“We’re not looking for multi-stories. We’re not looking for high-rise construction,” Armstrong said. “We’re really just looking to get more people in a centralized area.”
A First-of-Its-Kind Development
Now, one of the city’s most significant examples of middle housing is taking shape near Texas A&M’s campus.
Azura Residences, developed by Boardwalk Homes, a family-owned Aggie student housing developer with more than 30 years in the College Station market, is a community of 50 three-story townhomes in College Station’s designated middle housing district. With a total of 300 beds, it is the largest redevelopment project of its kind in the city’s history.
Each townhome features six bedrooms, six-and-a-half bathrooms, a private third-floor terrace and a bonus study room designed with students in mind. Community amenities include a pickleball court, a multi-purpose court, a dog park and shared gathering spaces.
“You don’t have something close to this, or that resembles this, anywhere in this proximity of campus,” said Ali Al-Farsi, Managing Director of Boardwalk Homes.
Al-Farsi says the project was inspired directly by the city’s middle housing initiative and that working with College Station to bring it to life was a collaborative process from the start.
“Our values and our outlook and goals align with what the city had in mind,” Al-Farsi said. “They wanted a walkable area where it’s dense, but not really, really dense.”
The project also represents a significant investment in College Station’s tax base, transforming what was largely underdeveloped land into one of the city’s most notable new neighborhoods.
The demand for Azura Residences speaks for itself. The development was 100 percent leased by April 2026.
Students are expected to begin moving in later this summer, with the community fully occupied by early August. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Monday, July 21.
Armstrong says Azura Residences is just the beginning. The College Station City Council has already begun exploring incentives to encourage more townhouse development across the city.
“This is a great catalyst project for middle housing,” Armstrong said. “Hopefully this shows the market, this shows investors, it shows citizens, even builders, that this product works.”
Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.