The Texas Home gave a thumbs Wednesday to a invoice permitting smaller houses on smaller tons in Texas’ largest cities, a part of a broad push by state lawmakers to place a dent within the state’s excessive dwelling costs.
However the Home made vital tweaks that may restrict what number of new houses may very well be constructed below the invoice, establishing a possible showdown with the Texas Senate over one in all Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s largest priorities.
Senate Invoice 15 would cut back how a lot land cities say single-family houses in new subdivisions should sit on. The thought is to let homebuilders assemble houses on smaller quantities of land, thus decreasing the general value of the house.
“This invoice permits the choice of constructing houses at differing kinds and value factors to fulfill the demand and desires of consumers,” state Rep. Gary Gates, a Richmond Republican who carried the invoice within the Home, mentioned throughout preliminary debate on the invoice Tuesday. “Reducing the scale and kind of residential housing will enhance the quantity of housing that may be constructed and lowers housing prices.”
Initially, SB 15 would forbid main cities from requiring houses in new subdivisions to take a seat on greater than 1,400 sq. toes as first proposed within the invoice. Gates amended that provision Tuesday to three,000 sq. toes. The state’s largest cities are likely to require single-family houses to take a seat on round 5,000 to 7,500 sq. toes of land, a Texas Tribune evaluation discovered.
The supply would solely apply in new subdivisions with a minimum of 5 acres of land, and wouldn’t contact current neighborhoods. The invoice would solely apply to cities with a minimum of 150,000 residents in counties with a inhabitants of 300,000 or extra — 19 of the state’s largest cities, per a Tribune evaluation of U.S. Census Bureau information. It additionally wouldn’t apply in circumstances by which householders affiliation and restrictive covenants stop smaller lot sizes.
Wednesday’s 86-43 vote got here after a dramatic flip of occasions on the tail finish of the laws by which a Democrat tried to kill the invoice on a technicality, however supporters managed to revive it in time to succeed in the complete Home earlier than a key deadline.
Some Democrats weren’t satisfied the invoice would tame housing prices — although proof broadly means that houses on smaller tons have decrease values than these on greater tons. A few of them expressed uneasiness in regards to the state weighing in on what sorts of houses will be constructed and the place, an influence the state grants to cities.
“They (residents) didn’t elect their state representatives to resolve how their metropolis would develop, not on that degree, not with this type of density,” mentioned state Rep. Ramon Romero, D-Fort Value, who beforehand moved to kill the invoice on procedural grounds.
Romero efficiently tacked on an modification that may require cities to undertake a separate zoning class to adjust to the invoice, basically that means the invoice wouldn’t mechanically apply to current single-family zoning classes. The invoice’s proponents say that provision successfully renders the invoice moot.
A majority of the chamber’s Republicans and Democrats voted in favor of the invoice Wednesday.
The Senate must log off on modifications the Home made to the invoice — or appoint a convention committee to hash out the variations between the 2 chambers.
Patrick mentioned Wednesday he hadn’t but seen the modifications Home lawmakers made.
“We’re working higher than we ever have with the opposite chamber so we’re actually determining any tough spots between us,” Patrick mentioned.
SB15 is a part of a constellation of proposals within the Texas Legislature geared toward curbing the state’s excessive housing prices, mainly by clearing crimson tape and slicing native laws to be able to enable extra houses to be constructed.
Texas wants about 320,000 extra houses than it has, in response to an estimate by the housing group Up For Development. That scarcity, housing consultants and advocates argue, performed a key position in driving up dwelling costs and rents because the state boomed.
Lawmakers on Monday despatched a invoice to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk that may enable residences and mixed-use developments alongside retail and industrial corridors. Each chambers have permitted payments to make it more durable for property homeowners to cease new houses from being constructed close to them and encourage cities to permit the development of smaller residences. They’ve additionally permitted payments to cut back hurdles to transform vacant workplace buildings into residences, make it unlawful for cities to disallow manufactured houses and calm down native guidelines in school cities that say what number of unrelated adults can stay in a house.
“Texas lawmakers stepped up this session as a result of the choice was frightfully clear: preserve stalling, and we get California housing costs, a middle-class escape and a enterprise exodus,” mentioned Nicole Nosek, who chairs Texans for Affordable Options, a bunch that has pushed a number of housing payments this session.
However a separate invoice to permit further dwelling models within the backyards of single-family houses, which died within the Home two years in the past, died earlier than it may come up for a vote forward of a key deadline within the Home on Tuesday evening.
Alejandro Serrano contributed to this report.
This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/27/texas-house-tiny-homes/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and interesting Texans on state politics and coverage. Study extra at texastribune.org.
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