How tall should buildings be when they're near single-family homes?
https://www.kut.org/austin/2022-06-08/austin-zoning-building-height-compatibility
There’s a building on South Lamar that looks like a step ladder. Well, maybe a step ladder if you laid it on the ground. Or, maybe just a set of stairs — for a giant.
“As you move across Lamar, you’re literally seeing the diagram of the zoning,” said Maija Kreishman, a principal with Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, which helped design the project.
The building, which is called Lamar Union, includes nearly 500 apartments, a dozen restaurants, an Alamo Drafthouse theater and parking garages. As you drive south, the building’s height, in increments, increases — going from one story up to five.
This design is not necessarily a product of some architectural trend, Kreishman said, but instead a response to zoning rules that limit building height within a certain distance of single-family homes.
In Austin, these rules are called compatibility, and as residents struggle with the cost of housing created by a shortage of homes to buy or rent, elected officials are considering changing compatibility rules to allow developers to build more.
“We’re cutting dozens of units for the benefit of a few single-family homes,” Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison, who represents East Austin, said at a council meeting earlier this week.
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