AUSTIN -- For nearly four decades, Eleazar Tamayo has walked has called this neighborhood near the intersection of Manchaca Road and Lansing Drive in South Austin Home.
"I've never had no problems in 38 years," he said.
He has seen a lot change, though. Namely, more families are moving to the area. Some are fixing up original homes, and others are ripping them down and building bigger, he said.
"They should let them do what they want to do," he said. "It's a free country."
It may be a free country, but more restrictions on how Tamayo's neighbors build could be coming .
The city's "McMansion Ordinance," adopted in 2006, imposes strict rules about how much space a building can take up on a lot, defines the maximum allowable height of a structure, and sets out special standards for how far back a house must be from the street.
It only affects property in the core of the city, an area roughly bounded by U.S. 183, Ben White Boulevard, MoPac Expressway, the Colorado River and Loop 360.
Austin Council on Thursday evening is expected to delay until August a vote to extend the rules to an area south of Ben White, east of Manchaca Rd., west of IH-35, and north of William Cannon Drive.
"Big houses take out sun in backyards and private, it affected affordability negatively -- just a myriad of issues, "said Austin City Council Member Laura Morrison.
Morrison introduced the idea of expanding the ordinance into this part of South Austin. She also lead the charge to write the original ordinance in 2006.
"We have all sorts of rules in place to balance the rights of the community and ensure quality of life... With private property rights. Finding that balance is what's important," she said.
It's a balance that the city has had difficulty finding, if you ask Annie Faz. She lives in South Austin now; She moved out of East Austin after the house she was living in was bought by developers, torn down and replaced with a bigger one.
"It looks nice but it's in a neighborhood where there's no other two-story houses," she said.
As property values in East Austin soared, residents like Faz there watched as condos, town homes and new development gobbled up parts of their neighborhood. Faz doesn't want to see that happen in her new neighborhood.
"It really looks bad if you're going to build a house next to this one that's a two-story house. It's not going to look right," she said.
