The cost of a home in Kyle could increase soon.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said the city will be to blame.
"What they did is, they went through, and in one fell swoop increased the square footage requirements on every type of housing in the city of Kyle," NAHB attorney Michael Kline said.
In 2003 the city made some zoning changes and the city increased the minimum size of a home by 200 square feet.
They also set a minimum garage size and added masonry requirements.
"We attempted to encourage diversity in the housing product that was being built in Kyle at that time," Tom Mattis, Kyle City Manager said.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said the ordinance does not diversify, instead, it discriminates.
The NAHB said the average cost of a new single-family home will increase from $100,000 to about $140,000.
The NAHB said this will price out low income families that are statistically minorities.
Robert Notzon, an NAACP attorney said that the Hispanic population would be affected the most.
"The City of Kyle has about 50 percent Hispanic population. This effect would then start reversing that trend from having a well integrated community."
No new homes have been built under the new ordinance and current development still falls under the old rules.
But there are some projects in the works that will meet the requirements.
"We intend to vigorously defend ourselves and defend our ability to simply implement a zoning ordinance just like all cities across America do," Mattis said.
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City of Kyle lawsuit
The NAACP said the zoning ordinance does not diversify, instead, it discriminates. |
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Notzon said that they are just trying to make sure that the future requirements aren't discriminating.
"We are not saying a city shouldn't have the authority to pass an ordinance that would raise the price of new home construction. What we are saying is, if you are going to take those steps you want to make sure they don't have a discriminatory impact," Notzon said.
"Don't raise the bar so high that it's really going to price out substantially a large portion of the minority population as compared to the white population," Notzon said.
Both sides will argue their case in Federal Court on February 11, 2008.
A judge will decide if the City of Kyle's ordinance discriminates or if it just enhances the community.
The NAHB is also suing the city for increasing its building permit fees by more than 25 percent since the suit was filed.
The association said the city is retaliating which is against the law. And the city said the fee hike is to pay for legal fees brought on by the lawsuit.
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