Nearly a year ago, the council tasked the committee with finding a way to avoid the looming housing shortage predicted for the city as rising rents and real estate prices made it difficult to afford a home in College Station. According to census data, there were 48,782 housing units in College Station in 2020.

After research and citizen feedback, the committee presented its findings and recommendations in an action plan for the city council on Thursday. The final version is due to be presented in September.

College Station city staff prepared a current housing status report to collect data on current housing conditions in the city. The report found that College Station lacked middle-class housing types such as duplexes, condos, and townhomes. The report also predicted a housing shortage by 2030. The Housing Action Plan Steering Committee consisted of 13 College Station citizens dedicated to researching and developing an action plan.

David Brower, community development analyst for College Station, presented the committee’s draft action plan to the City Council. Brower said he will meet with the committee after receiving direction from the city administration to develop changes and recommendations.

As part of its research, the committee collected feedback from the public through three general surveys on housing: a survey for anyone who lives or works in College Station, a survey for college students, and a survey for businesses and organizations.

“The general citizen survey received over 700 responses, the student survey received over 1,600 responses and the employer survey received over 50 responses,” he said. “We hope that the strategies and actions in the Housing Action Plan will not only expand housing options for those we traditionally serve, but also expand housing options for those who are above those income limits.”

The action plan defines “affordable housing” as a household that spends no more than 30 percent of its monthly income on total housing costs, Brower said.

“The plan has two main goals. The first goal is to create more housing units and more diverse housing types,” he said. “The second goal is to create and maintain housing that is affordable for current and future community members.”

Because the problem is so complex that it requires complex answers, the plan discusses many different strategies, Brower said.

“We put together a toolbox and tried to gather all the possible tools that a city could use to address housing issues and create housing,” he said. “Based on feedback from citizens, we explained to the committee which of those tools would make sense, given our conditions, to include in our plan.”

Council member Bob Yancy asked about the barriers to different housing types, which Brower said are mainly administrative in nature.

“To do that, we would have to look at our (Unified Development Ordinance) UDO and look at minimum lot sizes, look at things like parking requirements in certain situations and look at what areas could be changed or adapted to create higher density and more housing types,” Brower said.

During the open comment period, Council Member William Wright also spoke and shared a personal anecdote from his trip to Colorado to be presented to the committee for consideration.

“We looked into Ouray, which is a tourist town, and some of the companies there actually took their money and bought a motel for their employees,” he said. “We’re more or less a tourist town and we need to think outside the box because I don’t think there’s going to be anything traditional in the future with Texas A&M adding 1,500 new people every year. We’re never going to solve this problem by just building more.”

Texas A&M University recorded the highest enrollment increase for the fall 2023 semester, with 2,433 more students admitted than in 2022.

Council member Mark Smith asked for clarification on why there was a lack of middle-class housing while many new duplexes and townhomes were being built in College Station, which Brower elaborated on.

“Absent and absentee are perhaps not the right words. They are underrepresented,” he said. “We have a very large number of single-family homes and a very large number of apartments, the median housing stock is a very small proportion. … These efforts have been started, but the way it is now is the way our housing landscape looks.”

Brower also answered questions about homeownership restrictions through covenants to ensure that homes are available to income-eligible families.

“We worked with Habitat for Humanity and looked at what kind of homes they could build here. Habitat Austin follows this limited-ownership model. They found that it works better because the client owns the property and doesn’t have to lease the land, which is a barrier for some people,” he said.

Mayor John Nichols said he was extremely grateful for the work the committee had done and looked forward to the final plan, which will be presented again for approval in September.

“I want to thank the members of the Housing Action Plan Committee, several of whom are here tonight,” Brower said. “It has been a pleasure working with them. The committee is generally in favor of the plan before you, but they also wanted to express that there are trade-offs and potential challenges to overcome in implementation that should be carefully considered.”