The loss of trees, shrubs and grass (greenspace) from the grant of minor variances in the City of Austin was quantified. Eighty-five minor variance applications available for most of 1996 were tabulated. Adjustments in property line set back were requested by the majority of applicants. The calculable loss--which greatly underestimates the actual loss--of greenspace from the grant of minor variances equaled approximately 4.15 acres (180,697 ft²). Households requesting minor variances that decreased greenspace were more often located in areas of high income, high home appraisal value, and low minority population.

          Land use regulations were unnecessary in the agrarian society of the United States in the early nineteenth century; however, conflicts between land uses, for example residential versus industrial, arose with increasing industrialization and urbanization of the country (Lounsbury, Sommers & Fernald, 1981). During 1916 in New York City, integrated zoning first emerged as an extension of the common law of nuisances which states that "one must use his or her own [property] rights so as not to infringe upon the [property] rights of others" (Yeates, 1990, p.143). With the 1926 landmark decision in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. (272 U.S. 365) the U.S. Supreme Court constitutionally approved the use of public regulatory power--or "police power" which declares that private interests are subordinate to community interests--to specify the development and use of private land (Platt, 1996). Consequently, "Euclidean zoning" became the conventional land use control found in numerous communities today.

          An advantage of zoning was that it provided "stability and predictability for the benefit of property owners and investors," but zoning has paradoxically developed "toward greater flexibility to cope with the unexpected and the unfair" (Platt, 1996, p.243). Flexibility in zoning is achieved through amendments and variances. A minor variance is a procedure to provide bureaucratic relief from development standards of the Zoning Ordinance when such deviations allow for the reasonable use and development of a property. The granting of minor variances decreases urban greenspace and increases surface run-off (Wije, 1981). One reason for the urban heat island effect is the loss of greenspace. (Kumanan, 1970, cited in Wije, 1981). This paper identifies the patterns and quantifies the loss of trees, shrubs and grass (greenspace) from the grant of minor variances for most of 1996 in the City of Austin.

          Eighty-five minor variance request forms available for most of 1996 were examined from the Development, Review and Inspection Department located on 301 West 2nd Street, Austin, Texas 78701. For each application the date, zone district, variance request, board vote and public hearing results were recorded. The data were tabulated, areas of greenspace (trees, shrubs, and grass) loss quantified, and the addresses decreasing greenspace were mapped with the commercial on-line mapping service, Yahoo! Maps. Utilizing Microstation, the addresses that reduced greenspace were also plotted on a map of Austin, Texas created from the Travis county design file (227urban.dgn) which was obtained from the Texas Natural Resource Information System (TNRIS) download area. The final project was published on the World Wide Web (WWW) in HyperText Markup Language (HTML 3.0) using Netscape Gold Web-Page Editor.

          Table 1 shows the results of the minor variance applications available for 1996 in the City of Austin. Of the 85 total requests, the majority of applicants (25) appealed for adjustments in property line set back. Many applicants desired a decrease in front yard set back (FYSB) to erect a garage or a decrease in front street set back (FSSB) to erect a carport. Others needed to reduce rear yard set back (RYSB) to construct an addition to their house or maintain a side street set back (SSSB) which did not meet the zoning requirements for their district.

          The second largest number of cases (15) resulted in no net change in impervious ground cover (IGC). These applicants removed and added an equivalent area of asphalt; increased the height of a fence, wall or sign; or added a second story to their residence. Reductions in the required number of off street parking spaces (OSPS) formed the third most common number (nine) of requests. Unlike the "property line set back" and "no net change" applicants who lived predominantly in the Single Family Residence (SF3) and Lake Austin (LA) zone districts, the "off street parking space" applicants owned businesses located in the Commercial Services (CS) and Limited Industrial Services (LI) zone districts.

          Two applications were denied, four were postponed and six were withdrawn (Table 1). For the two denied applications, the first requested a reduction in rear yard set back (RYSB) creating 54 ft² of impervious ground cover (IGC); the second appealed to add a driveway increasing the IGC by 8.23% above the 45% allowed maximum. The postponed and withdrawn applications were zoned Single Family Residence (SF3), Commercial Services (CS) and Limited Industrial Services (LI).

          The minor variance applications that resulted in a calculable loss of greenspace were quantified in Table 2. A total of approximately 4.15 acres (180,697 ft²) of greenspace was lost in Austin during 1996 from these requests. Most of the applicants resided in the Single Family Residence (SF3) zone district. All addresses from Table 2 were mapped in Figure 1. The mapped houses were generally located in a north-south direction between MoPac Boulevard and Interstate 35. Households requesting minor variances that decreased greenspace were more often located in areas of high income, high home appraisal value, and low minority population. East Austin, with its combination of higher African-American and Hispanic populations, lower home appraisal values and lower household incomes had zero variances that decreased greenspace.

          This study brought to light the amount of trees, shrubs and grass (greenspace) lost in the City of Austin from the grant of minor variances. The 4.15 acre loss for 1996 is an extremely conservative number (Table 2). Minor variance applications are not prepared for research purposes; therefore, much of the loss in greenspace could not be readily quantified. Many of the applications were incomplete, lacking important information such as the entire dimensions of a new impervious addition. Furthermore, at the time the data were collected, around late October, some of the applications for 1996 were still pending.

          The majority of minor variance applicants appealed for adjustments in property line set back, for example to erect a garage or construct an addition to their house. A modification which uses the land more intensely is one of the common types of land-use change (Wilder, 1985). Although applicants built carports, increased fence heights and decreased the number of parking spaces for their businesses, their property still had the same type of use. Similarly, Wilder (1985) discovered that land remains in the same type of use even if changes are made to the buildings on the land. The "property line set back" and "no net change" applicants lived mainly in the Single Family Residence (SF3) and Lake Austin (LA) zone districts, while the "off street parking space" applicants were zoned Commercial Services (CS) and Limited Industrial Services (LI). This pattern of similar changes for different zone districts is supported by Wilder (1985) who found that land-use change differs by location. Moreover, Wilder (1985, p.332) states, ". . .certain land uses (e.g., low-density housing) are more conducive to change." Of the 85 applications examined, the majority of applicants were zoned Single Family Residence (SF3) and Lake Austin (LA). Both these zone districts were planned for low-density, family housing: SF3 minimum lot size, 5,750 ft² to 7,000 ft² and LA minimum lot size, one acre.

          Willhelm (1961) showed that for applications postponed or denied by the Austin City Council and for applications withdrawn by the applicant, no modifications took place on their property. Table 1 shows that two applications were denied, four were postponed and six were withdrawn. These applications were zoned Single Family Residence (SF3), Commercial Services (CS) and Limited Industrial Services (LI). According to Willhelm (1961, p.105), ". . . the effect of zoning upon the utilization of the land is most direct when zoning applications are denied or postponed by the [Austin] City Council or withdrawn by the applicant."

          The majority of households requesting minor variances that decreased greenspace were located in a north-south direction between MoPac Boulevard and Interstate 35 (Figure 1). East Austin had zero variances that decreased greenspace. Maps from the 1995 Consolidated Plan for the City of Austin revealed that most of the areas of minority concentration and the areas of low income concentration were located east of Interstate 35 (Anon., 1995). The results of an Austin American-Statesman computer analysis of over 500,000 Travis Central Appraisal District records showed that areas east of Interstate 35 generally had lower home appraisal values (Hiott & South, 1994). The distribution of addresses diminishing greenspace in Figure 1 could be an economic indicator showing the disparity among Austinites; however, it should be noted that the possibility of higher rates of noncompliance in East Austin may also be a factor for this distribution.

          In central Texas the Edwards Aquifer is a major source of drinking water, and the aquifer feeds the Barton Springs swimming hole in Austin (Mullen, 1988). Due to the publicizing of the need for zoning laws changes, when big construction projects in Austin require rezoning, constant public scrutiny results over its negative environmental effects. Yet, the public at large is unaware of the enormous loss of greenspace within the law by the cumulative effects of these small incremental changes from authorizing minor variance adjustments. Because the loss of greenspace creates not only unaesthetic neighborhoods but also greater surface run-off levels and urban heat islands, further studies over longer periods of time are needed to investigate the "invisible loss" of this scarce resource in the City of Austin.

          I thank the Development, Review and Inspection Department of Austin for supplying the data; the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) for providing the Travis county design file; Vicinity Corporation which powers the on-line mapping service, Yahoo! Maps; Dr. Kenneth E. Foote, Donald J. Huebner and Keene Haywood for introducing me to this Brave New World of geographical information systems (GIS) and web publishing; Lance Christian for the tons of technical support, and my father for giving me the idea for this project.

Anonymous. (1995). 1995 Consolidated plan. Austin: Neighborhood Housing and Conservation Office.

Hiott, D. & South, J. (1994, May 22). Is your property appraisal on the up and up? Austin American-Statesman, p. C1.

Kumanan, I. (1970). Towards an understanding of the urban heat island in the Detroit-Windsor area. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, Dept. of Geography, University of Windsor. pp. 4-6.

Lounsbury, J.F., Sommers, L., & Fernald, E. (1981). Land use: A spatial approach. Dubuque: Kendall / Hunt Publishing Company.

Mullen, C. J. (1988). The role of the planner in zoning administration: A case study of Austin, Texas. M.S. Thesis in Community and Regional Planning, University of Texas at Austin. pp. 30-70.

Platt, R. H. (1996). Land use and society: Geography, law and public policy. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Wije, C. (1981). Geographical aspects of the application of minor variance in Windsor, Ontario. M.A. Thesis, Dept. of Geography, University of Windsor. pp. 3, 64-65.

Wilder, M.G. (1985). Site and situation determinants of land use change: An empirical example. Economic Geography, 61 (4), 332-344.

Willhelm, S. M. (1961). The implications of zoning data for ecological theory. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin. pp. 104-105, 136-137.

Yeates, M. (1990). The north American city (4th ed.). New York: Harper & Row Publishers.