Duplexes

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Duplexes Small to medium size structure consisting of two adjacent residential units. These can be configured as side by side, back/front, or stacked. Duplexes increase affordability, improve tax base, provide income opportunities for homeowners who can live in one unit and rent out the second, increase neighborhood diversity and reduce sprawl - at no cost to taxpayers. Duplexes should be allowed on every residential lot in Austin.

Problem: Duplexes should be the most basic type of housing to be used in the affordability toolbox. While CodeNext has duplexes in most transect zones, it is too restrictive with the type of duplex that is allowed to be built which will ultimately reduce the number of duplexes that will be realized.

Recommendations

Comment page #
Allow back/front duplexes. While they are described in the code, they are absent from all but one T4 transect zone.
It's not clear from the code if the side by side duplex will be allowed to be attached by a garage only. Also, will the duplex shared wall have to be 50% of the total length of the building. Both of these provisions are in the current code and result in absurd structures which are less safe for the occupants. These should not be in CodeNext.