But from the time I arrived 7 years ago, and despite my income increasing over that time, I have actually ended up further away from central Austin than when I first arrived here for an internship while working nights as a bouncer at Cain & Abel’s. Here’s what that looks like:

It’s a question many young people have asked, but few have examined. As recently as yesterday, I have been looking for a new place to live. My lease is up at the end of August, and I have been a renter here since I first moved to Austin in 2009.

Willie Cecil is the CEO of Cecil Logistics and Chair of the Economic Development Committee. This blog post represents the view of Mr. Cecil and his views alone. To find out more about the Economic Development Committee and their work, RSVP for their next meeting on September 28th .

The realities of living that far away nowadays are absolutely draining. What was a 20 minute commute by bus or bicycle from Hyde Park to downtown turned into an hour and fifteen minutes. While I could choose to not use a car in Hyde Park, living on Gracy Farms Ln requires me to have one. With Mopac being my only thoroughfare for all my North-South trips, the entire central city of Austin was essentially shut off to me between the hours of 7:30-9:30 AM and 3:30-6:30 PM, sometimes longer. As someone who started a courier business the year before and supplemented it with rideshare income, this was devastating to my bottom line.

Let me be clear. This article is not about what I don’t like about Austin. In fact, I love Austin and its entrepreneurial spirit. I can and will adjust, manage to continue making my own money, and am pursuing projects that do not involve cars or deliveries. My goal here is not to complain. But I have to paint a picture of the realities of the current situation, something many millennials are feeling the effects of, and examine why it’s happening in the hopes of doing something about it. As early as 2 years ago, I didn’t have months where I barely squeaked by. 4 years ago, I didn’t have to have a roommate if I planned on living anywhere remotely close to downtown — or even clean for that matter. Something needs to change.

What’s Causing All of This?

The amount of answers to this is as diverse as the question is complex, but a few central themes continue to spring up:

Current housing supply doesn’t meet demand

Our land use code is burdensome and complicated

Most local neighborhood associations are fierce obstructionists to new density

Several “missing-middle” options that could add housing are not currently allowed

Let’s tackle these one by one.

Supply and Demand

Austin faces a very unique problem: people keep wanting to move here. While many might not like that, we’re lucky to have that problem. Look to Detroit as a case study of what happens when the opposite takes place. Yet that influx is causing a strain on housing prices. Many find they can’t afford to live close to where they work, play, shop, or study. A quick MLS search of available studio and 1-bedroom apartments in central Austin, some as small as under 400 square feet, are going for upwards of $1100/month in rent. Backyard cottages, mostly bereft of the amenities apartment complexes can sometimes provide, are often in the same price range. I can’t think of many people that would pay that much for that little unless they had to.

An obvious solution is to increase housing supply as quickly as possible, but here’s where we begin reaching obstacles.

Land Use Complications

If you are ever having trouble sleeping, watching a presentation on the land use code in Austin would probably fix your insomnia pretty quickly. It’s not a sexy topic, but it is hugely important. This codifies the minimum and maximum dimensions of, as a small example: distance between structures, the structure’s height, the structure’s composition (amount of units), the lot size needed to build additional units, the driveway width, carport limits, drainage requirements, handicapped accessibility, permitted landscaping, which trees can be knocked down, you name it. Ever seen a suburban neighborhood where all the houses have the same types of bricks? This is why.

For 30 years, zoning changes in Austin area have added additional uses, along with additional requirements for compliance, called overlays, to specific units or swaths of units throughout town. The result has become situations where your house or place of business can have up to 4 types of overlays. There are now over 400 combinations of zoning uses in Austin. This has gotten so complicated, developers are often opting for the PUD zoning distinction (public utility district) so they can make better use, in their opinion, of land they want to develop. Mueller is an example of this. Some surrounding neighbors, however, would argue they’re trying to skirt the rules.

Beginning, ????, End

Further complicating things, is Austin’s prohibition of certain types of housing uses on certain types of zones, namely single-family lots. Our current code does not allow for more than two units to be developed on a single-family zone, and has had restrictions to building backyard cottages in the past that often excluded many places where they could otherwise be built.

The result is that the code compliance needed for building 3 units is the same as for building 300 units, causing space and height limitations, and making building anything between those two unit amounts often financially untenable. Nearly everything between single-family homes and mid-rises is not currently allowed on single-family lots, no matter the lot size.

Arguably, this caused single-family neighborhood bubbles to spring up in central Austin that both limited the access to Austin’s central core and prevented further density. Meanwhile, most multi-family development and suburban development was relegated to the surrounding areas, causing outlying pockets of poverty with woefully low access to large chunks of the city or necessities such as groceries.

The City of Austin is working with consultants on CodeNEXT, which is hoping to allow units such as the ones below to be allowed on single-family lots. Something it dubs “the missing middle”.