A home sits under construction in the Four Seasons Farms subdivision in eastern Kyle. Homebuilders’ groups and the NAACP filed suit against the city of Kyle in 2005 after it adopted regulations that increased minimum square footage and lot size, alledging that the rules were discriminatory against minorities. (Photo by Sean Kimmons)
STAFF REPORT
The Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that the city of Kyle’s residential development regulations are not discriminatory against minorities as alleged in a lawsuit filed by homebuilder groups and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The NAACP, the National Association of Home Builders and the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin sued the city in November 2005, saying that new minimum lot sizes and square footage requirements violated the federal Fair Housing Act because it disproportionately affected minorities. The suit also alleged that the city retaliated against the Home Builders Association when the city increased building permit fees to cover the cost of the litigation, city officials say.
In February 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel heard the case and found that the city won on all counts and did not violate the act, nor did the city retaliate against the association by raising the permit fees.
After Yeakel’s decision in March 2009, the groups appealed the ruling to the court of appeals, which found that they did not have standing to sue the city as no evidence showed any of their members were unable to purchase a home as a result of the revised rules.
In its ruling, the court states, “…there is no evidence in the record showing that a specific member of the NAACP has been unable to purchase a residence in Kyle as a result of the revised ordinances that went into effect in 2003.”
“Instead, Plaintiffs have pointed only to evidence suggesting, in the abstract, that some minority members may be less able to afford such residences due to the revised ordinances. This is insufficient for associational standing because the alleged injury is neither concrete nor imminent.”
Attorney Michael Klein, with the Austin-based law firm Smith Robertson, represented the homebuilders associations in the lawsuit.
“We’re obviously disappointed in the result,” Klein said Tuesday. “We do think that the court got it right by not awarding the city attorney fees.”
The city had countersued requesting reimbursement of attorney fees, but the appeals court ruled that since the lawsuit was not frivolous, the attorney fees would not be awarded. In April 2009, former City Manager Tom Mattis estimated the fees to be close to $300,000.
Klein said he did not yet know if the groups would appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The city came under fire when it adopted changes to the zoning ordinance in November 2003, requiring single-family residences to be a minimum of 1,600 square feet on minimum lot sizes of 8,190 square feet.
The ordinance also requires all new structures to be constructed with exteriors of 100 percent masonry and to have garages a minimum of 480 square feet.
The previous ordinance required a single-family residence to be not less than 1,400 square feet and allowed lot sizes to be 20 percent smaller.
In their lawsuit, the NAACP and homebuilders claimed that the changes raised the price of homes from $100,000 to $133,000.
City officials said that the new ordinances were passed to slow the unprecedented growth that was occurring at the time, which put tremendous pressure on the ability to extend services to all parts of the city.
Home lots that were already platted at the time of the approval of the new rules were grandfathered under the rules in place at the time they were platted. The number of plats that were grandfathered was estimated at approximately 60,000, officials say.
At the time of the initial bench trial in 2008, no homes had been built under the new ordinance, city officials said.
