This is one of the more misdirected things the city has done. There are literally rows of empty houses and empty apartments near me that stay permanently empty except some weekends when they are filled with bachekorettes going WOOO at 1 AM.
You can walk down Haskell and see such a row of small apartments, all empty and used strictly for STRs.
And the removal of occupation limits hamstrings one of the only tools holding the AirBNB owners accountable, not that they care much about fines anyway.
The STR issue is rapidly killing our neighborhoods, and now there will just be more.
Here is data if you don’t believe me.
http://insideairbnb.com/austin/
Also people are doing this anyway, just building sheds from scrap lumber and running an extension cord to them and renting them out. Code doesn’t seem to care, so how could this ever go wrong?
Nah. They have the right to keep that land empty if that’s what they want to do. They own it. I’m just pointing out that there is empty land in Austin, owned by a variety of interests, and we don’t seem to provide any incentives to sweeten the deal for anyone who might be interested in turning it into mixed use.
As an aside, I’d also like to see incentives for providing discounts to people who both live and work im the same development.
I see your point, but have definitely seen a cosmic shift in the way Austin looks and feels. I drive around sometimes and am just amazed at the places that have sprouted up and are full communities so I guess that’s part of my reaction here to someone saying it’s not enough. And don’t get me wrong, I am not against it, I just think that if you compare Austin now to say Austin in the 1990’s it’s crazy. Sure more can be done, and I am sure things will happen, but it does take time. Oh, and money. Lots and lots of money.