HB24 is seen as a way to rewrite history, moving away from a Jim Crow-era Texas law put into place almost a hundred years ago.
State Representative of District 13 Angelia Orr (R) is the bill's author. She said, “I’m glad to be part of that change. When I first started looking at this, I thought, "Why did we do this a hundred years ago?" She said, "I do think the times have changed and most other states have either gotten rid of this completely or have brought it back down to what we’re looking at.”
She said the goal of HB24 is to loosen housing development restrictions to allow for more homes to be built in Texas, which experts said is already facing a housing shortage.
Rep. Angelia Orr said, “Right now the law says that if 20% of your neighbors don’t like what you’re doing, they can force the city council to a super majority vote to override them.”
Rep. Orr said the bill would not only help developers but help fill empty lots or allow for more opportunities for neighbors to add a garage apartment on their property or build additional living units.
This as Rep. Orr and reports highlight Texas is short more than 300K homes.
Rep. Orr believes HB24 could help by changing the law, going from 20% of your neighbors opposing the new build and raising it to 60%.
In order for them to have a say in front of City Council, they must have property within 200 feet of your new build.
Rep Orr added, “And it only requires a simple majority of the city council to overturn it. So it’s trying to give property owners a little of — their rights back to them.”
Over in the City of Lacy Lakeview, real estate agent and Lacy Lakeview City Councilman Jonathan Olvera weighs in on HB24 and said there’s no shortage of developments here or across the Greater Waco area that he's aware of but supports the bill even though they haven’t had issues with neighbors protesting other neighbor's new builds.
“It should help but sitting on the city council there’s not many items that come across in this way to where we have to just turn them down" he said.
While these issues may not be happening in Lacy Lakeview, Rep. Orr said she did get the certified letter about a potential development in her neighborhood. She said she didn’t protest the build — helping spark her authoring HB24.
“If they own the lot, why do I even get a say in what they do with it?”
Representative Orr said the bill has passed the House and Senate and expects it to head to the Governor’s desk soon.
We will continue to monitor its progress down in Austin.
There are more details behind HB24 and you can read more by clicking here.
