Vacant offices, strip malls may get new life as housing in Texas’ largest cities

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Empty offices, vacant strip malls and warehouses could help solve Texas’ housing affordability crisis after state lawmakers advanced legislation Tuesday.

The Texas House gave final approval to Senate Bill 840, which aims to allow apartments and mixed-use developments to be built in certain cities along retail and commercial corridors and in places that now only allow office buildings. The bill by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Mineola Republican, would let owners of those properties build homes on that land without having to get it rezoned — a process housing advocates and developers note is costly, lengthy and ultimately drives up the final cost of a home.

House members approved the bill, which has already cleared the Senate, by a 106-33 vote. The Senate must approve changes the House made to the bill before it heads to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk.

The bill would only apply to Texas’ largest cities. It’s limited to cities that have a population greater than 150,000 people that sit in a county with at least 300,000 residents.

The bill is part of a suite of GOP proposals aimed at curbing the state’s high housing costs — chiefly by allowing more homes to be built. Texas needs 320,000 more homes than it has, according to one estimate. That shortage, housing experts argue, helped drive up home prices and rents as Texas boomed over the last few years.

Republicans in the Texas Legislature, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, have sought ways to curtail housing costs by allowing more homes to be built. Lawmakers have advanced bills to allow smaller homes on smaller lots and additional dwelling units in the backyards of single-family homes. They’ve also pushed legislation to more quickly put city building permits in developers’ hands and make it harder for property owners to stop new homes from being built near them.

With key deadlines looming and less than two weeks to go in the legislative session, none of those bills have reached Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

Tuesday’s vote was a key test in how House members would tackle perhaps some of the more controversial aspects of the GOP’s slate of housing bills — chiefly those that would relax city rules, known as zoning regulations, that say what kinds of homes can be built and where. Similar proposals died in the House two years ago.

But Senate Bill 840 cleared its first vote in the House without debate. Bills to allow smaller homes on smaller lots, a top Patrick priority, as well as accessory dwelling units haven’t been scheduled for a vote in the House.

There’s broad support among Texas voters for allowing more homes in business and shopping districts and vacant office and commercial buildings to become homes, a recent poll conducted by YouGov and Texans for Housing found. That support also holds for moves to make it possible to build accessory dwelling units and smaller homes on smaller lots, the poll showed.

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