The Tyler, Texas, City Council has voted to reduce the minimum home size required for the North End Residential Building Incentive Program, created to provide incentives for single-family infill construction in the city’s north end, from 1,600 to 1,300 square feet.
Since the program’s creation in 2007, 748 new single-family homes have been built in Tyler’s north end, near Butler College and Texas College, and 3,585 new homes have been built citywide. The program’s minimum house size was raised from 1,500 to 1,600 square feet in 2018, resulting in a drop in program participation and new-home construction.
City Council Members Broderick McGee and Shirley McKellar who represent district 2 and 3, which is where the program is targeted, both had developers come to them about this issue. McKellar says her constituents explained to her the minimum house size was out of many people’s price range.
The Tyler City Council approved during Wednesday’s meeting to reduce the minimum size to 1,300 square feet in hopes of reaching the goal of 3,000 new homes in a couple of years.
McKellar says she couldn’t wait and passed on the good news to developers in her district.
“Several builders have said, probably about six of them said, they're ready to go now that we're going to reduce to that 1,300 square footage,” she said.
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