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City Of Houston Will Re-Legalize Garage Apartment Rentals?


trymahjong

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Margaret Wallace Brown (COH panning Dept) was one of the speakers at last nights Neartown/Montrose zoom meeting I think I got distracted “arbitrating” a cat and Puppy dispute happening at my feet…..but She was explaining that garage rentals ( she pointed out that most of Montrose was “grandfathered” in) on new build would be allowed again by COH as part of the proposals for enrtry level housing options.  I didn’t get to find the ‘ raise hand’ option to ask questions……….……….

 ………….the cat/puppy arbitration was a no-go and I had to leave the room…..still I thought that was an interesting piece of information.

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This is part of what the Livable Places Committee is looking at if you wanted to read up more on it.

Basically, the "grandfathered" in portion she was mentioning probably had to do with things like parking requirements which weren't in effect when most of Montrose was built. They are looking at changing some of the rules to be more flexible like they were in the past. 

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58 minutes ago, Texasota said:

removing parking requirements from garage apartments would be a great (albeit small) step. I hope the ADU updates go a lot farther than that though.

Yeah, I think they were being very open on possible options, including allowing up to 3 ADUs per lot. I think the committee will come to a recommendation in the next month or two. They just had a public survey completed. 

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Wait, I’m confused. I own a full size residential lot in Montrose where my primary residence is (a single family home). I have the space in the backyard to build a 500 sq ft detached garage apartment/ADU. Can’t I just build a new garage apartment/ADU in my backyard now if I wanted to? Getting everything permitted of course. There are no deed restrictions on this as far as I’m aware.
 

What’s the new development here?

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17 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Right now you can add one garage apartment (and only one) and you have to provide parking for it. They're talking about allowing multiple units and relaxing or eliminating some parking requirements.

That makes sense to me. If someone doesn't need a parking space, why should they be required to have one provided for them?
It's time to reexamine the post WW II notions that free parking is an inalienable right. There is no such thing as free parking. 

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1 hour ago, clutchcity94 said:

Wait, I’m confused. I own a full size residential lot in Montrose where my primary residence is (a single family home). I have the space in the backyard to build a 500 sq ft detached garage apartment/ADU. Can’t I just build a new garage apartment/ADU in my backyard now if I wanted to? Getting everything permitted of course. There are no deed restrictions on this as far as I’m aware.
 

What’s the new development here?

Further loosening of the rules. 

16 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Right now you can add one garage apartment (and only one) and you have to provide parking for it. They're talking about allowing multiple units and relaxing or eliminating some parking requirements.

Basically this. If you wanted to add a duplex to your backyard, I don't think you could without re-platting. I lived in a two story garage that was converted into 4 studios in Montrose for awhile, so something like that wouldn't be possible today. 

Tandem parking doesn't count either (parking in front of another car).

Current parking requirements for SFR is 2.0 spaces for each dwelling unit plus 1.0 for an ADU < 900 sq ft. If it goes above 900 then it adds another 2.0. 

You go 3 or more then it becomes multifamily I believe, so you have to do apartment-based parking requirements which are 1.25/studio, 1.333/1bed, 1.666/2 bed, 2.0/3bed+.

Two studio apartments and a 3 bedroom house and you would need 5 parking spots. One 900 sq ft apt and a 3 bedroom house and it is 3 parking spots and it may cost the same as doing two studios. 

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