Austin neighbourhood plan combining districts: what an NP ordinance can change
Why this is the first thing to check
A neighbourhood plan combining district is not a gentle layer of design guidance. §25-2-1406 sets out ten things the ordinance creating one may do, and several of them go straight at the numbers a house is designed around — floor area, front setback, minimum lot size and impervious cover.
Combined with Subchapter F §1.4.2, which provides that an NP ordinance supersedes Subchapter F to the extent of conflict, this means the 0.4 floor area ratio and the setback tent we describe elsewhere on this site are the default, not the guarantee.
| §25-2-1406 | What an NP ordinance may do |
|---|---|
| (1)–(2) must | Prescribe which special uses are permitted, and locate each residential infill, neighbourhood urban centre and neighbourhood mixed use building special use |
| (3) | Restrict trading hours for a business in a neighbourhood mixed use building |
| (4) | Confine corner store, cottage, secondary apartment or urban home special uses to part of the district |
| (5) | Cut minimum lot area to 2,500 sq ft and minimum lot width to 25 ft; raise impervious cover to 65% on lots of 4,000 sq ft or less |
| (6) | Apply the front porch setback, impervious cover and parking placement, and garage placement rules of §§25-2-1602 to 1604 |
| (7) | Restrict front yard parking via the §12-5-29 restricted parking area map |
| (8) | Apply the mobile food establishment rules of §25-2-812(N) |
| (9) | Modify Subchapter F: maximum FAR and gross floor area, gables and dormers at the setback plane, side and rear setback plane heights, minimum front yard setback |
| (10) | Apply the affordable housing requirements of §25-2-1407 |
The complete list from §25-2-1406. Items (1) and (2) are mandatory — every NP ordinance must address them. The rest are permissive, so whether any of them applies to your lot depends entirely on what your neighbourhood's ordinance says.
Subsection (5): the small-lot provision most summaries miss
This one is worth reading closely, because it is a different route to a small lot from the one on our small lot page, and it can go further on impervious cover.
It applies to a single-family residential use on an existing legal lot platted on or before 15 August 2024, or a secondary apartment special use on an existing legal lot. For those, an NP ordinance may:
- reduce the required minimum lot area to 2,500 sq ft;
- reduce the required minimum lot width to 25 feet; and
- for a lot of 4,000 sq ft or less, increase the maximum impervious coverage to 65 percent.
Sixty-five percent against the 45% an SF-3 lot normally gets is a very large difference on a small site. On a 4,000 sq ft lot it is 2,600 sq ft of impervious cover instead of 1,800.
And the anti-gaming clause. Subsection (5)(d) provides that a lot which has been aggregated with other property to form a site may not be disaggregated to satisfy the subsection. You cannot combine lots for one purpose and split them again to qualify here.
Note the date. The lot must have been platted on or before 15 August 2024 — this is a provision for existing lots, not a subdivision tool. It arrived with Ordinance 20240516-006, the same HOME Phase 2 ordinance that set the 1,800 sq ft minimum.
The seven special uses
§25-2-1403 defines a vocabulary that exists only inside NP combining districts. An NP ordinance must state which of these it permits — so a use being defined in the code does not mean it is available in your district.
- Cottage — single-family dwellings on lots at least 2,500 sq ft.
- Urban home — a single-family dwelling on a lot at least 3,500 sq ft.
- Secondary apartment — a second dwelling on a developed single-family lot.
- Corner store — a site providing goods or services to local residents.
- Residential infill — a designated area for predominantly residential with limited commercial uses.
- Neighbourhood urban centre — a designated area for commercial plus townhouse, condominium and multifamily residential.
- Neighbourhood mixed use building — a building used for both commercial and residential.
Each of the first four has its own article of detailed regulations: urban home at §§25-2-1421 to 1424, cottage at §§25-2-1441 to 1444, secondary apartment at §§25-2-1461 to 1463 and corner store at §§25-2-1481 to 1485.
What this page deliberately does not say
It does not tell you what applies to your lot, and no page honestly could. §25-2-1406 is almost entirely permissive — "may reduce", "may increase", "may modify". Every one of those choices was made separately, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, in the ordinance that created each district.
So two SF-3 lots four streets apart can sit under different NP ordinances with different front setbacks, different floor area caps and different impervious cover. There is no citywide answer to extract.
What this page gives you is the list of questions your neighbourhood's ordinance is entitled to answer differently — which is the thing you need before you can read that ordinance usefully.
How we handle NP lots
We get the ordinance itself, not a summary of it. The difference between a 25-foot and a 15-foot front setback is a room, and it is the kind of thing that gets rounded off in secondhand descriptions.
The two we check first are the front setback and the floor area cap, because those two change the plan rather than the detailing. Impervious cover comes next, particularly on the smaller lots where subsection (5) could be in play.
The honest warning we give clients: if someone quotes you a buildable square footage on an NP lot without naming the ordinance they read it in, treat the number as a guess. The default Subchapter F answer is right for a lot of Austin, and wrong in exactly the neighbourhoods where people most want to build.
Common questions
Working out what you can build?
We build in Central Austin and deal with this code on every project. If you own a lot and want a straight answer about what fits on it, we're happy to take a look.
Talk to us about your lotWe 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.