{"id":23595,"date":"2025-05-30T15:31:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T15:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=825741"},"modified":"2025-05-30T15:31:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T15:31:04","slug":"texas-house-advances-bill-to-allow-homes-on-smaller-lots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/texas-house-advances-bill-to-allow-homes-on-smaller-lots\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas House Advances Bill to Allow Homes on Smaller Lots"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-default-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2025\/05\/30\/825741.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2025\/05\/30\/825741.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>The Texas House gave a thumbs Wednesday to a bill allowing smaller homes on smaller lots in Texas\u2019 biggest cities, part of a broad push by state lawmakers to put a dent in the state\u2019s high home prices.<\/p>\n<p>But the House made significant tweaks that would limit how many new homes could be built under the bill, setting up a potential showdown with the Texas Senate over one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick\u2019s biggest priorities.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>Senate Bill 15 would reduce how much land cities say single-family homes in new subdivisions must sit on. The idea is to let homebuilders construct homes on smaller amounts of land, thus reducing the overall price of the home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis bill allows the option of building homes at different types and price points to meet the demand and needs of buyers,\u201d state Rep. Gary Gates, a Richmond Republican who carried the bill in the House, said during initial debate on the bill Tuesday. \u201cLowering the size and type of residential housing will increase the amount of housing that can be built and lowers housing costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Initially, SB 15 would forbid major cities from requiring homes in new subdivisions to sit on more than 1,400 square feet as first proposed in the bill. Gates amended that provision Tuesday to 3,000 square feet. The state\u2019s biggest cities tend to require single-family homes to sit on around 5,000 to 7,500 square feet of land, a Texas Tribune analysis found.<\/p>\n<p>The provision would only apply in new subdivisions with at least five acres of land, and wouldn\u2019t touch existing neighborhoods. The bill would only apply to cities with at least 150,000 residents in counties with a population of 300,000 or more \u2014 19 of the state\u2019s largest cities, per a Tribune analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. It also wouldn\u2019t apply in cases in which homeowners association and restrictive covenants prevent smaller lot sizes.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s 86-43 vote came after a dramatic turn of events at the tail end of the legislation in which a Democrat tried to kill the bill on a technicality, but supporters managed to revive it in time to reach the full House before a key deadline.<\/p>\n<p>Some Democrats weren\u2019t convinced the bill would tame housing costs \u2014 though evidence broadly suggests that homes on smaller lots have lower values than those on bigger lots. Some of them expressed uneasiness about the state weighing in on what kinds of homes can be built and where, a power the state grants to cities.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>\u201cThey (residents) didn\u2019t elect their state representatives to decide how their city would develop, not on that level, not with this kind of density,\u201d said state Rep. Ramon Romero, D-Fort Worth, who previously moved to kill the bill on procedural grounds.<\/p>\n<p>Romero successfully tacked on an amendment that will require cities to adopt a separate zoning category to comply with the bill, essentially meaning the bill wouldn\u2019t automatically apply to existing single-family zoning categories. The bill\u2019s proponents say that provision effectively renders the bill moot.<\/p>\n<p>A majority of the chamber\u2019s Republicans and Democrats voted in favor of the bill Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate will have to sign off on changes the House made to the bill \u2014 or appoint a conference committee to hash out the differences between the two chambers.<\/p>\n<p>Patrick said Wednesday he hadn\u2019t yet seen the changes House lawmakers made.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re working better than we ever have with the other chamber so we\u2019re really figuring out any rough spots between us,\u201d Patrick said.<\/p>\n<p>SB15 is part of a constellation of proposals in the Texas Legislature aimed at curbing the state\u2019s high housing costs, chiefly by clearing red tape and cutting local regulations in order to allow more homes to be built.<\/p>\n<p>Texas needs about 320,000 more homes than it has, according to an estimate by the housing group Up For Growth. That shortage, housing experts and advocates argue, played a key role in driving up home prices and rents as the state boomed.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers on Monday sent a bill to Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s desk that would allow apartments and mixed-use developments along retail and commercial corridors. Both chambers have approved bills to make it harder for property owners to stop new homes from being built near them and encourage cities to allow the construction of smaller apartments. They\u2019ve also approved bills to reduce hurdles to convert vacant office buildings into residences, make it illegal for cities to disallow manufactured homes and relax local rules in college towns that say how many unrelated adults can live in a home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTexas lawmakers stepped up this session because the alternative was frightfully clear: keep stalling, and we get California housing prices, a middle-class escape and a business exodus,\u201d said Nicole Nosek, who chairs Texans for Reasonable Solutions, a group that has pushed several housing bills this session.<\/p>\n<p>But a separate bill to allow additional dwelling units in the backyards of single-family homes, which died in the House two years ago, died before it could come up for a vote ahead of a key deadline in the House on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>Alejandro Serrano contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2025\/05\/27\/texas-house-tiny-homes\/.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/texas\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Texas<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"825741\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-yes\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! <span class=\"percent\"><\/span>% of people found this article valuable. 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