Gov. Greg Abbott wants to crack down on cities he accused of getting in the way of addressing the state’s housing affordability problems and make it easier for homeowners to build additional dwellings in their backyards, he said Friday.
Abbott signed a bipartisan set of laws last year aimed at chipping away at the state’s shortage of homes by allowing more homes to be built — moves shown to rein in housing costs. But a group of cities, primarily in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, have since passed a slate of local rules aimed at curbing the amount of homes that get built under those laws.
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At a campaign stop in Round Rock, Abbott accused cities of “skirting the law” and said he would pursue legislation to withhold sales tax revenue from any city or county “violating the law” — though he didn’t call out any localities by name.
“We have cities across the state that are finding ways to skirt around the laws that we’ve already passed to rein in all of the costly mandates imposed by cities,” Abbott said. “Now we’re adding teeth to that.”
Abbott also signaled he wants state lawmakers to make it easier for homeowners to build accessory dwelling units — also known as ADUs, granny flats, mother-in-law suites or casitas — in the backyards of single-family homes. Housing experts consider accessory dwelling units a low-cost way of adding homes that allows homeowners to house additional family members or generate rental income without disrupting single-family neighborhoods.
Many Texas cities allow accessory dwelling units on paper but also have rules that hinder their development. Abbott wants homeowners to automatically have the right to add such a unit to their property, he said Friday.
Efforts to allow accessory dwelling units died in the Legislature during the past two legislative sessions. Neighborhood groups sometimes oppose allowing ADUs in part because they worry they’ll be used as short-term rentals.
A pair of laws Abbott signed last year loosened local zoning regulations in the state’s biggest cities to allow apartments in more places and smaller homes on smaller lots. Some 12,000 homes are moving forward as a result of those laws, according to a recent tally by a bipartisan coalition that backed the bills, including Texans For Reasonable Solutions, American Enterprise Institute and Texas Appleseed.
North Texas suburbs particularly have taken issue with Senate Bill 840, which allows developers to build apartments or mixed-use complexes with residences on land that previously only allowed offices, shopping centers and warehouses in the state’s 19 largest cities.
The Texas Tribune reported in September that officials in several North Texas cities have adopted greater height thresholds, amenity requirements and stricter building codes with the aim of constraining how much housing gets built under the law.
A new apartment complex built in Irving must now have eight floors unless the City Council says otherwise — a requirement Abbott name-checked Friday. Arlington and Plano adopted similar requirements.
Some cities now also mandate developers to build specific amenities for apartment tenants. Grand Prairie requires apartments built using SB 840 to include an Olympic-sized swimming pool. New apartments built in Irving must include perks like a dog park or a workspace for remote workers.
“That will drive up the cost of being able to build out the facility,” Abbott said. “That will add to it so that the project just will not be done.”
Representatives for Irving and Grand Prairie did not immediately provide comment.
Four cities, the housing coalition found, also have enacted additional requirements around Senate Bill 15, which reduces how much land cities require single-family homes in new subdivisions to sit on.
Abbott’s push comes as candidates in the 2026 midterms come under pressure to address the state’s high cost of living, particularly housing costs. Some 60% of Texans told pollsters their housing costs have gone up in the past year, according to a poll by the Texas Association of Affordable Housing Providers. Many told pollsters they’re unable to build savings or have put off major expenses like healthcare owing to higher costs.
Disclosure: Texas Appleseed has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.