On June 5, 2025, the Austin City Council approved a zoning change that will allow the Acacia Cliffs apartments on Far West Boulevard to be demolished and rebuilt taller under the city’s DB90 program—over the objections of residents who said they will be priced out of their homes. The vote capped months of tense debate over how Austin trades height for affordability and what happens to the people already living in low-cost units when redevelopment arrives, according to Austin Free Press.

Today, Acacia Cliffs contains about 290 apartments that meet affordability definitions. Under the approved DB90 upzoning, roughly 78 units in the future project would be affordable—a net loss of about 212 lower-cost homes on site, according to Austin Free Press.

What the Council voted on

DB90 is Austin’s density-bonus mechanism that grants additional height—up to 90 feet—in exchange for a limited slice of income-restricted apartments, typically around 10%–12% of the project. It was the policy vehicle used to justify greater height at Acacia Cliffs in return for a small number of affordable units, as reported by Austin Free Press.

In a procedural move that set the tone for the evening, Mayor Kirk Watson made the motion for final approval to “have something for people to actually respond to,” with Council Member Chito Vela seconding, according to Austin Free Press. A bid by Council Member Marc Duchen to postpone the case to September 25 died for lack of a second, the outlet reported.

Vela pressed the developer’s lobbyist, Michael Whellan, to spell out tenant protections. Whellan said residents would receive relocation benefits equal to four months’ rent and fees plus a fixed payment for moving costs, explaining that the first is required by DB90 and the second by federal law. Vela summarized, “So we’re (at) about $5,000, a little north of $5,000 in economic benefits,” adding, “If we vote this down… we’re taking, you know, $5,000 out of the pockets of the folks that live there, and I’m just not going to do that,” according to Austin Free Press.

Earlier that same day, the Council unanimously voted to begin revisiting DB90’s rules. Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes added direction to consider a one-for-one replacement policy—restoring a protection the 2023 Council removed from the original draft that would have required developers to offer returning tenants comparable units at comparable rents and sizes when density bonuses are granted. But whatever changes come from that review will arrive too late for Acacia tenants, according to Austin Free Press.

Voices from the complex

Residents and advocates filled the chamber to describe lives rooted in the complex and budgets already stretched thin. Vianey Camorlinga told Council she made “one call after another” to nearby apartments and found few two-bedroom options at Acacia’s price point, according to Austin Free Press.

Sol Praxis, with Community Powered ATX, said, “Many Acacia Cliffs residents are actually East Austin natives who say this is the last place they can afford to stay in Austin… Don’t take away people’s dignity in order to make a deal work for a developer,” according to Austin Free Press. Praxis warned, “If you vote to pass this, we will keep organizing until all of Austin knows that this Council is working hard to destroy any existing affordable housing.”

For Rosa Gutierrez, a grandmother who returned to Austin to be near family, the stakes are immediate: “We are families who love being here because all the things we need are already here. However, due to DB90, our housing is at risk and many of us don’t know where we’ll go,” she said, according to Austin Free Press.

Whellan, representing the owner, called Acacia Cliffs a “difficult case,” argued “the status quo is not an option,” and pledged “no redevelopment will happen until 2027” with a relocation specialist on site when evictions begin, according to Austin Free Press.

The passions are inseparable from Austin’s longer history. Advocates who opposed the rezoning referenced the legacy of the city’s 1928 plan, which designated East Austin as the city’s “negro district,” embedding segregation and displacement patterns that continue to echo through land-use fights today, as documented by Wikipedia.

What this means for affordable housing

The math is stark: about 290 affordable homes today, about 78 after redevelopment—a net loss of roughly 212. That contraction comes in a region already short of housing. The metro needs about 1,000,495 units but has approximately 856,586, a deficit of around 143,909 homes, according to PadSplit. Losing deeply affordable units on a single site may be a small fraction of that gap, but the people displaced face a market that doesn’t automatically produce like-for-like replacements.

Citywide trends are shifting. Research from Realtor shows Austin’s market cooled by mid-2025, with more active listings, longer months of inventory, and improved affordability metrics compared with recent boom years. Data compiled by Team Price Real Estate reported record-high active listings in 2025, suggesting buyers have more options. But those macro gains don’t guarantee replacement housing at Acacia-level rents. Redeveloped units—even when income-restricted—often aren’t priced at the same level as older, modest apartments.

That mismatch is the crux of the DB90 fight. As applied at Acacia Cliffs, the program granted significant new entitlements while yielding far fewer affordable homes than exist today and without binding return rights at comparable rents. Critics say the result is a density bonus that can accelerate displacement unless the city stitches in stronger protections, according to Austin Free Press.

To avoid repeating this outcome elsewhere, housing advocates and policy analysts have urged the city to tighten the rules. According to Austin Free Press and supporting market and supply data, including PadSplit, the city could:

  • Reinstate enforceable tenant protections, including a true first right of return with comparable rents and unit sizes.
  • Require one-for-one replacement of affordable units on site or nearby, with long-term affordability covenants.
  • Strengthen DB90 by tying bonuses to deeper affordability levels and stronger oversight and enforcement.
  • Negotiate binding Community Benefits Agreements to secure tenant protections and community investments up front.
  • Create a municipal stabilization fund to preserve and acquire at-risk properties and finance robust relocation assistance.

What happens next will test whether the Council’s promised DB90 overhaul can match the scale of the problem. The redevelopment clock at Acacia Cliffs is now ticking; the owner has pledged no work until 2027, but residents must still navigate a wrenching transition, according to Austin Free Press. Across the city, the supply picture is mixed: more listings and a cooler market on one hand, a six-figure regional housing deficit on the other. Bridging those realities will likely require pairing pro-housing zoning reforms with protections that prevent today’s affordability from being demolished faster than the city can rebuild it, advocates say, citing analyses from Realtor and PadSplit.

For Acacia Cliffs, the Council’s unanimous vote on June 5 made clear who decides—and at whose risk. For the broader city, the next iteration of DB90 will show whether Austin can add homes while safeguarding the communities that already call those homes their last affordable option, as this case has laid bare, according to Austin Free Press.