First, we have the wonderfully ridiculous Point of Sale Energy Efficiency Requirement proposal, and now we have new Mandatory Visitability proposal. Perhaps the city of Austin would like a new nickname - “Daddy State?”
The city has always required that homes built using public funds adhere to these guidelines, but the city council passed a resolution to initiate code amendments to all new homes. The proposed amendments include ground floor or ramp entry, doors at least 32 inches wide, hallways at least 36 inches wide, and first floor bathrooms w/ walls capable of supporting grab rails.
I have real issues w/ the city’s over the top attitude regarding building code & retroactive code. Extending the visitability standards to all new homes is fixing a problem that doesn’t exist. As it stands, it’s fairly easy to retroactively modify current homes for the disabled. Requiring that all homes meet these requirements will become overly costly in comparison with the relatively few modifications to existing homes for the disabled.
Local government interfering with the ability of property owners to transfer property or the ability of buyers to quiet enjoyment of property are two things that really have me riled up lately. On a personal level, I spent hours and hours of shoveling trash at a foreclosure I have listed to get it ready for a mandatory municipal inspection only to have an incompetent and under-trained inspector issue us another “fail” on the property. I was less than amused.
I don’t feel it is in the public’s best interest to have our government dictating property standards. I understand certain rules in the context of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) but some of the things that the local municpalities are doing would be funny if they weren’t completely frustrating. We should be able to buy and sell a termite infested, mold growing, soggy, flooded pile of you-know-what without Big Brother telling us “No, not on our watch”. As long as there’s disclosure and proper representation on both sides why should anyone else care? Some people make good money buying everyone else’s trash.
I fixed it - it was set to have a minimum if 5 comments first & I didn’t realize that!
the city council and the mayor prefer to make headlines rather than sensible policy. surely in a city of this size, there are more important matters for the council agenda than private property accessibility, shopping bags, and plastic bottles to name a few.
personally, i’m moving outside the city of austin limits on my next home purchase. i give up.
I guess I am pretty lucky where I live right now (Atlanta). There was at least one situation where building was blocked downtown (people were building larger homes on old lots in the city, leaving people with smaller, older homes in the shadows) and I’ve seen all kinds of intrusion in other cities.
Sometimes outrageous laws are overturned if enough noise is made. I wish you the best in that fight.
If there isn’t a problem, why do politicians feel the need to fix things. Good luck getting them to overturn the law. Perhaps when it starts to affect the local economy they might be more inclined to reconsider.
I take great disdain at the federal government trying to tell Texans how to run Austin real estate. We don’t want the federal government dictating solutions to us.