Recent changes to the Austin Land Development Code

Last verified August 7, 2026 against the Austin Land Development Code · Kimbrough Gray · KiliGray Homes

The Austin Land Development Code is amended continuously. Our archived text cites 217 dated ordinances across the chapters we hold, the most recent being 20251023-063 of 2025-10-23. This page lists the recent ones by date and says which parts of the code each touched.

Applies to: Anyone relying on something they read about the Austin code more than a year ago. The amendment rate is high enough that guidance written before mid-2024 predates several structural changes.

The code moves faster than the guidance written about it

Our archived chapters cite 217 dated ordinances. The practical consequence is that a blog post, a forum answer or a builder's rule of thumb from three years ago may be describing a code that no longer exists — and nothing about the way it is written will tell you that.

The list below is generated from the code's own amendment history, so it updates when we re-pull the sources rather than when someone remembers to edit it.

Passed	Ordinance	Parts of the code it touched
2025-10-23	`20251023-063`	zoning district regulation table, residential district regulations, district regulations
2025-04-24	`20250424-073`	HOME two- and three-unit regulations
2025-03-27	`20250327-084`	drainage
2025-03-06	`20250306-037`	definitions, measurement rules, site plans, drainage, +1 more
2025-02-27	`20250227-039`	zoning district regulation table, HOME two- and three-unit regulations, residential districts, subchapter-c-art5-accessory, +2 more
2024-12-12	`20241212-074`	transportation and parking
2024-10-10	`20241010-034`	residential district regulations, residential districts, zoning districts, district regulations
2024-08-29	`20240829-158`	residential district regulations, district regulations
2024-07-18	`20240718-103`	Title 30 (ETJ) general, Title 30 (ETJ) subdivision
2024-07-18	`20240718-102`	applications, subdivision
2024-05-30	`20240530-137`	transportation and parking
2024-05-30	`20240530-136`	environment
2024-05-16	`20240516-007`	HOME two- and three-unit regulations, residential districts
2024-05-16	`20240516-006`	definitions, zoning district regulation table, HOME two- and three-unit regulations, measurement rules, +3 more

The 14 most recent dated ordinances cited in our archived text, newest first. Austin ordinance numbers embed their own date, which is what makes this table derivable. "Touched" means the section's amendment history names the ordinance — see the warning below about what that does and does not mean.

An amendment history says an ordinance touched a section. It does not say what the ordinance did. That distinction matters more than it sounds: when we checked the four ordinances Municode lists against §25-2-642, exactly one of them turned out to touch that section at all. So treat this table as a pointer to what to re-read, never as a summary of what changed. Where this hub states what an amendment actually did, it is because someone read the ordinance.

The changes this hub has actually read

A few recent amendments have been taken to the ordinance and are explained with their substance sourced:

HOME — the two- and three-unit regime in §25-2-773, which waives Subchapter F entirely for those uses rather than modifying it, and carries its own floor-area gradient. See floor-to-area ratio.
Compatibility reform — the 2024 rewrite that pulled the triggering distance in and reset the height steps. See compatibility standards.
Drainage, §25-7-152 — amended by Ord. 20260122-059 effective 2 February 2026, adding an exception for park improvements on City parkland. Found by our drift sweep; no page on this hub sources a claim to that section.

This list lags the live code, and we would rather say so. Our archived text sits at Supplement 172 (28 January 2026), so the table above ends there. Anything Council passed since is invisible to it until we re-pull the sources. Every page on this hub carries the date it was last verified for the same reason — currency is a claim, and an unstated one is not worth making.

How to use this

If you are relying on something you read elsewhere about the Austin code, check whether any ordinance above post-dates it and touches the same area. If one does, the guidance is suspect until re-checked — not necessarily wrong, but not safe to build on.

The areas that have moved most in the last two years are floor area, compatibility, and the residential district regulations. Those are also the three that most guidance written before 2024 gets wrong.

Common questions

How often does the Austin Land Development Code change?

Continuously. The chapters we archive cite 217 dated ordinances, with several amendments in most years — including structural changes to floor area and compatibility standards since 2024.

How do I tell if Austin code advice is out of date?

Check whether an ordinance passed after it was written touches the same part of the code. Austin ordinance numbers embed their date — 20240516-004 passed on 16 May 2024 — so the amendment history of a section tells you when it last moved.

What does it mean when an ordinance is listed under a code section?

That the section's amendment history names it. It does not tell you what the ordinance did, and those listings are not always reliable — we have found sections listing ordinances that turned out not to touch them. Use the list to decide what to re-read.

Is this list complete?

No, and in two ways. It only covers chapters we have archived, and it excludes older citations whose numbering carries no embedded date. It is a recency list rather than a complete changelog.

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 address

We 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.