HOME repairs

In debates over land use, politicians and the public tend to focus on zoning. But zoning is only one of many roadblocks to housing. The headline-grabbing zoning reforms that allow more housing may not actually enable more housing if they aren't accompanied by reforms to Austin's byzantine technical code and the labyrinthine permitting bureaucracy that interprets it.

Alas, it's hardly surprising that homebuilders are complaining that HOME, the ordinance Council approved nearly two years ago to allow three units on single-family lots, has been severely hampered by other rules in the land development code.