MAKING HOUSING MORE AFFORDABLE

Texas Senate panel moves to cut minimum residential lot sizes in large cities

 

By Hannah Norton

 

Community Impact

Mar 17, 2025

 

 

Senate Bill 15 would authorize property owners in large Texas cities to construct single-family homes on lots as small as 1,400 square feet without approval from local officials. 

 

A Texas Senate committee is looking to make housing more affordable by allowing homes to be built on smaller plots of land. Senate Bill 15 would authorize property owners in large Texas cities to construct single-family homes on lots as small as 1,400 square feet without approval from local officials.

The bill would apply to land larger than five acres that has not been mapped or platted.

Members of the Senate Local Government Committee voted 6-0 March 13 to send the bill to the full Senate.

The overview

SB 15 would apply to cities with at least 90,000 residents located in counties with populations of at least 300,000—including Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis, Collin, Denton, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Williamson counties.

Bill author Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said the proposal is modeled after the city of Houston’s residential lot size policies. Houston officials lowered single-family lot sizes in the city center from 5,000 square feet to 1,400 square feet in 1998, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, and expanded the ordinance to the entire city in 2013.

“In the last decade, there has been an incredible acceleration in the age of the average homebuyer, and that means that the average homebuyer is obviously very affected by affordability,” Bettencourt said during a March 10 committee hearing.

The average U.S. homebuyer was 56 years old in 2024, up from 49 years old the year prior, the National Association of Realtors reported in November. This is the highest average age since the association began publishing annual data in 1981, according to the report.

“The cost to build versus what the average Texas family can afford has never been wider, and it's growing. ... Starter homes that used to be very accessible and abundant, they're no longer there, and it's heartbreaking,” Greg Anderson, director of community affairs for Austin Habitat for Humanity, told the committee March 10.

The local impact

If SB 15 becomes law, it would supersede regulations in the city of Austin, which allows single-family homes to be built on lots 1,800 square feet or larger. Local officials approved the changes last spring in an attempt to permit more housing types and smaller homes than have traditionally been allowed in Austin.

The bill would prohibit local governments from requiring single-family homes to be built on lots larger than 1,400 square feet. For lots smaller than 4,000 square feet, Bettencourt said officials would not be allowed to enforce zoning restrictions related to height, parking spaces or setbacks, which refer to the minimum distance between buildings and property lines.

To ensure “the characteristics of existing neighborhoods are not heavily impacted,” Bettencourt noted the proposed changes would only apply to land larger than five acres that has not been mapped or platted by Sept. 1.

Georgetown mayor Josh Schroeder said SB 15 would be “an absolute disaster” for his city, due to potential increases in population density. Georgetown had about 96,000 residents in 2023 and is located in Williamson County.

“[This is] a tax hike on my community. ... It would have millions of dollars of impact on our water, wastewater and road systems that our community would be required to pay for,” Schroeder told committee members March 10.

Glenn Hamer, CEO of the Texas Association of Business, said SB 15 would help more Texans “continue the American dream” of owning homes.

“[This] proposal represents critical steps towards increasing housing affordability for working Texans and accessibility for all Texans,” Hamer said March 10. “Reducing minimum lot size requirements enables construction and essentially restores the concept of starter homes.”

Texas’ population growth has outpaced homebuilding since 2020, the state comptroller’s office reported in August, resulting in a widespread housing shortage. Up For Growth, a national housing policy organization, estimated in 2023 that Texas needs about 306,000 more homes to meet demand.

Also of note

During the March 10 hearing, senators also discussed Senate Bill 673 and Senate Bill 840, both by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola. The two bills were left pending in the committee March 10, but could be sent to the full Senate during a future hearing.

SB 673 would allow residential property owners in Texas to construct accessory dwelling units, or secondary residential buildings, on the same lot as single-family homes.

“These are independent, private, secure housing units that can be detached from or attached to the primary home,” Hughes said March 10. “The bill empowers private property owners to address the workforce and housing crisis while offering them options [on] how to use their own residential property and alleviate long commutes.”

Hughes said the bill would not impact deed restrictions or homeowners’ association rules that may prohibit accessory dwelling units. However, local governments would not be able to bar landowners from building these units on their property, he said.

Under SB 840, developers would have the option to build residential and mixed-used properties on land zoned for commercial use. Hughes said this would help alleviate housing shortages by allowing companies to convert vacant office buildings into apartments “without having to go through the process of rezoning.”

“The rezoning process is lengthy, it's complex. And of course, we know that everything we do to add to the cost of new housing prices families out of the market,” Hughes said during the hearing. “1,300 people are moving to Texas every day. We have... to get ahead of this.”