Austin condominium residential use: 14,000 sq ft, and 3,500 per unit
It replaces the district, it does not adjust it
§25-2-776(A) is the sentence that matters most, and it is easy to read past: for a condominium residential use in SF-5, SF-6 or a multifamily district, the base zoning district regulations are superseded by this section.
Not modified, not supplemented — superseded. So the site area figures below are not read alongside your district's own minimums; they replace them for this use. It is the same move §25-2-772 makes for single-family attached, which is why these three sections sit together.
| Requirement | |
|---|---|
| Minimum site area | 14,000 sq ft |
| Site area per condominium | 3,500 sq ft |
| Implied floor | Four condominiums fills 14,000 sq ft exactly |
§25-2-776(B) and (C). The two numbers meet at four units — below that the 14,000 sq ft minimum binds, above it the 3,500 per unit does.
Two numbers that cross at four units
The site minimum is 14,000 square feet. The per-condominium requirement is 3,500 square feet. Those meet exactly at four units — 4 × 3,500 = 14,000 — and that crossing point is the useful thing to hold on to.
Below four condominiums the site minimum is what binds: three condominiums still need the full 14,000 sq ft, not 10,500. Above four, the per-unit figure takes over and the site has to grow with the count. Ten condominiums need 35,000 sq ft.
SF-5 is where the real constraints are
Subsection (D) applies only in SF-5, and it is much harder to satisfy than the site area arithmetic suggests. Three separate limits:
- 300 feet from other condominium sites in an SF-5 district. A dispersal rule — it stops condominium sites clustering into a de facto multifamily block.
- Prohibited on a site with access only to a local residential street. You need frontage on something more than a neighbourhood street. On many SF-5 parcels this is the provision that ends the conversation.
- Not more than ten condominium units on the site.
Take the three together and the ceiling is firm: ten units, needing 35,000 sq ft of site, on a parcel with non-local street access, at least 300 feet from the next such site.
The same parking sentence, in both districts
SF-5 and SF-6 each carry an identical line: a parking space may not sit in a required front street yard, except for a parking space in a driveway.
The exception is what makes it workable. A car on the driveway in front of the house is fine; a parking bay carved out of the front yard beside it is not. The rule is about the street frontage reading as a front yard rather than as a car park, not about where residents may leave a car.
Open space: the same rule as multifamily
Subsections (F) and (G) are the condominium copies of the multifamily open space rules, and they are word-for-word identical: ten or more units go to Subchapter E §2.7 for private common open space; fewer than ten provide private personal open space of at least five percent of gross site area.
The exceptions are the same three districts and the same quarter-mile park trade for certified affordable developments. Rather than restate all of it here, the detail — the dimensional minimums, how the quarter mile is measured, what counts as safe pedestrian travel — is on the multifamily open space page.
Common questions
Send us an address and we will tell you what we find
We do this research ourselves on every project we take on — zoning, floodplain, watershed, trees, whether it is a legal lot. Send us an address and we will run it and tell you what we find. It works the same whether you own a vacant lot, a house you are thinking of adding a unit to, or a house you are thinking of replacing. No charge and no strings, and if it is a bad lot we will say so.
Send us an addressWe are homebuilders, not the City of Austin. This page explains how we read the code in practice — it is not legal advice and it is not an official determination. Always confirm with Austin Development Services before you rely on it for a project. The authoritative text is the Austin Land Development Code; permitting questions go to Austin Development Services Department.