Reducing the minimum size required for new home builds was one of eight code amendments recommended for approval by Kyle’s Planning and Zoning Commission earlier this month.
Other amendments, which will go before the Kyle City Council for final approval, dealt with parking, signage and subdivisions in the city.
Will Atkinson, Kyle city planner, said residents have supported amending the minimum home size requirement in the past, specifically those who sought to build a manufactured home.
Currently, Kyle code requires buildings to be constructed at a minimum of 1,200 square feet. While city code doesn’t specifically limit the construction of single-wide manufactured homes, the minimum requirement “by default, negates that,” Atkinson said.
“Unfortunately, this causes us to be more unaffordable,” Atkinson said.
Atkinson recommended the code to allow for a 1,000 square foot minimum for new home builds. Commissioners voted unanimously to recommend the change.
“A lot of citizens that live in our manufactured home communities come in to get their manufactured home permits and are astonished, and a lot of times not very happy, that before they were annexed, they could build an 800 square foot structure,” Atkinson said. “But now that they want a new home, the minimum (size requirement) has gone up.”
Commissioners said they might be interested in revisiting the code again in the future to further reduce the minimum requirement, or possibly remove it entirely to make way for tiny homes.
P&Z also recommended to allow both residential and non-residential lots with more than five spaces to reduce the sq. foot number by five percent under certain requirements. Other amendments clarified size requirements for various parking spaces.
Commissioners also clarified portable signs as temporary signs and should be kept indoors after hours.
Proposed code amendments will be presented to city council for final approval no later than Feb. 5.
