Air conditioner in 5 foot easement (Austin: how much, new house, neighborhoods)

[Jbowen]

In a new construction next door to my residence, the contractor is going to put the air conditioner on a concrete pad in the 5 foot property easement on our property line. Is this legal.

[gpurcell]

Is it really an easement or are you just talking about the setback?

[CptnRn]

If you are in the City of Austin you can send an email to their 311 service here and ask them to answer the question.

Providing uncomplicated access to City services and information | Austin 311 | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by Jbowen

In a new construction next door to my residence, the contractor is going to put the air conditioner on a concrete pad in the 5 foot property easement on our property line. Is this legal.

I assume it's legal because they are like that all over Austin. Most tract houses, after entering the side gate, have barely enough room to fit a lawnmower past it. To avoid having it that way, homes would have to be 20 feet apart instead of 10, or the condensing unit would have to be behind instead of on the side, which would be inefficient. And of course, houses with more spacing cost more.

How much more would you have been willing to pay for a home with more space between the houses so that your neighbors condensing unit would be a few feet further away?

Steve

[CptnRn]

The 5' zoning set back evolved out of the recognized need to have some minimal separation of structures, to reduce the likelihood that a residential fire could easily jump from flammable structure to flammable structure and take out entire neighborhoods. With each residential structure providing a 5' setback from property line, the minimum between structures becomes 10' total, which offers a reasonable degree of separation.

An AC condenser contains little flammable material, so it is probably exempt from the 5' setback.

[scm53]

Our pool equipment is in the 5' setback.

[blakely]

We recently submitted plans to the COA that had the AC in the 5' easement/setback, and the City kicked them back to us and told us the AC and AC pads could not be in the 5' setback.

So we had a choice of slimming up the house (cutting square footage) or moving the pads to the rear of the house.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by blakely

We recently submitted plans to the COA that had the AC in the 5' easement/setback, and the City kicked them back to us and told us the AC and AC pads could not be in the 5' setback.

So we had a choice of slimming up the house (cutting square footage) or moving the pads to the rear of the house.

That is interesting, that is the first I have heard of them doing that.

[Trainwreck20]

Pretty much every house in our neighborhood (built 1998-2000, mainly) has ACs that go to about 2' from the property line.

[PittsburghAustin]

The last two new houses I have purchased have 5' from the house to the fence on the sides.