El Paso considers easing restrictions on casitas to expand housing choices

Proposed ordinance change could make it easier for El Paso residents to build casitas and add affordable housing units

by Elida S. Perez August 19, 2025

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The city wants to address a housing shortage in the city’s urban core by loosening restrictions on building backyard accessory dwelling units, commonly referred to as casitas, and easing minimum parking requirements in some areas around Downtown El Paso.

What is a casita? A casita is a small accessory dwelling unit on the side or backyard  of a single-family home’s property. They are also called mother-in-law’s quarters, backyard cottages or guest quarters.

In El Paso, current city regulations limit the size, use and properties that can be built – though many properties in and around Downtown have casitas that were built before the city implemented zoning restrictions.

The city is aiming to change zoning regulations to make it easier for homeowners to build casitas and ensure existing ones are in-line with city ordinances. The proposed changes are part of an effort to add affordable housing options, city leaders said. The proposed changes include eliminating off-street parking requirements in areas surrounding Downtown that are cost prohibitive to new developments,including housing units.

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The El Paso City Council will have a public hearing Aug. 19 on the proposed zone changes and vote whether to adopt them. If the City Council votes in favor of the changes, they would go into effect immediately.

Opponents are concerned that loosening regulations will create an influx of casitas, drawing multiple renters and additional vehicles into neighborhoods. Supporters say the changes will give homeowners more options to add living spaces for either family members or renters without changing the appearance of the neighborhood.

Allowing for accessory dwellings is a growing trend nationally, with other states such as California and Montana having made similar zoning changes and have had a lot of success in bringing more housing units, experts said.

“The goal here is basically to give people who own single-family homes the ability to add an additional unit to their property and create basically another housing unit for people to live in – it’s a pretty low level change in that it’s not creating massive housing buildings in people’s neighborhoods or anything like that,” said Yonah Freemark, principal research associate in the Housing and Communities Division at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization.

“It’s basically allowing communities to bring in more people without disrupting the way the community looks,” Freemark said.

How casita rules would change in El Paso

The changes to city zoning would allow for a casita to be used as a rental, the current code only allows for residential uses. Currently only one bedroom was allowed. Under the proposed changes, there would be no minimum on bedrooms, but square foot restrictions would apply depending on the lot size.

The code now only allows single-family detached casitas on property lots of 5,000 square feet and limits the square footage of the structure. If the zoning changes are approved, casitas could be built on any size lot and could abut the existing home.

The building itself could be at least 800 square feet depending on the size of the lot, but not any larger on lots of 8,000 square feet or smaller. If a lot is larger than 8,000 square feet, the casita can be up to 1,200 square feet. Height requirements would remain the same: They cannot be higher than the existing home. Building code requirements would not change.

No additional parking spaces would be required, doing away with the one parking space now required.

The update would also not require the homeowner to live on the property where the casita is being built.

“Waiving the requirement that it be owner-occupied is dangerous and invites investments,” Baca said.

Property taxes may deter outside investors from purchasing investment homes for the purpose of creating rental properties, said Rick Snow, member and past president of the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors.

“The (home) prices are attractive, but then the taxes, the taxes make it prohibitive because you (as the investor) have no homestead exemption. The problem for investors is that they have to come in and then they have to put the rent so high that it’ll, again, be prohibitive to most people (to afford),” Snow said, adding that they would struggle to get the units rented.

A growing trend toward easing casita restrictions

El Paso is not alone in aiming to address an affordable housing shortage by easing zoning restrictions for accessory dwelling units.

Several states and cities have eased restrictions for building casitas over the last two decades, according to research by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. While some states have differing regulations, at least 10 have adjusted rules to allow for the units, including California, Washington, Montana and Vermont, the accessory dwelling unit report shows.

Texas doesn’t have statewide regulations on accessory dwelling units. Regulations vary by municipality, though an effort to standardize legislation for casitas was introduced in the 2023 88th Legislative Session. Senate Bill 1412 would have allowed accessory dwellings statewide and would have limited municipalities’ regulations, but it failed to pass on the third reading of the bill.

At the national level, H.B. 4568 the Supporting Upgraded Property Projects and Lending for Yards, or SUPPLY Act was introduced July 18 in an effort to expand access to financing for casitas by providing government-backed, flexible financing options to help homeowners of modest means overcome financial hurdles. The bipartisan bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services on July 21.

Proponents say allowing more flexibility will address a rental housing shortage, while opposition in communities generally comes from homeowners that are concerned accessory dwellings will bring “unwanted outsiders” and more traffic that could reduce home values, the research by Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, shows.

“I do not want my neighbor putting 1,200 (square) feet in his backyard and having three bedrooms or two bedrooms and five more cars park on the street – neither should anybody else,” Ray Baca, a certified property manager, said during a public meeting of the proposed changes Thursday.

In El Paso, the effort to ease the restrictions started by targeting the Downtown, Uptown and Surrounding Neighborhoods Master Plan area adopted by the City Council in July 2023. Zoning change recommendations were brought forth in October of that year but never adopted. 

The zoning changes being proposed are the first of three phases and  would apply citywide. The other phases will look at possible zone changes for density and trash enclosures and tiny homes and a priority housing overlay in Central El Paso.

The elimination of off-street parking requirements aims to make new development of housing options less cost prohibitive, but would apply to new developments within the redevelopment areas from Downtown and along Mesa Street to Executive Center Boulevard.

“The evidence from other places around the country that have allowed these types of units to be built suggests that they are not going to dismantle communities or ruin the neighborhood feeling, or overwhelm them with traffic or anything like that. There’s no evidence for that, frankly,” Freemark said.

The changes being proposed are the first of three phases aimed at easing restrictions for new housing options.

“The point of these changes is to encourage the development of different housing types that there could be more of, and it’s an easy way to add some flexibility for people who want to have a relative live on their property,” city Rep. Chris Canales said, adding it allows for flexible multigenerational living.

Canales said the changes also codify the homes in and around Downtown El Paso that have casitas that were built before the city had zoning authority.

“A lot of it is legalizing what we already see in a lot of the core neighborhoods,” Canales said.

Make plans:

The public hearing for the proposed zone changes will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 19, during the regular City Council meeting at 300 N. Campbell.