Council to consider joint hearing with Planning Commission on code amendments

Mayor Kirk Watson wants everyone in Austin to know that City Council will be holding a hearing on changes to the Land Development Code. Specifically, Council will be considering comments on proposals to allow three units per lot in single-family residential districts, allowing tiny homes and RVs to serve as accessory dwelling units and eliminating the dwelling unit occupancy limit for residential uses.

“We want to make sure that we have the credibility as we go forward with these – with significant, robust, complete, total notice – whatever’s the right word,” said Watson at Tuesday’s Council work session.

The Planning Commission and Council will each hold public hearings on the three proposed changes to the code. In addition, prior to either of those hearings, Council and the Planning Commission will meet in a joint session for a public hearing on the three proposals. The city has not held joint hearings in the past, but state law provides for such hearings.

Assistant City Attorney Patricia Link told Council that the Law Department would be recommending “at a minimum, 10 days’ notice for publishing in the Austin-American Statesman, giving notice to the Community Registry (and) giving notice to every parcel within the city’s zoning jurisdiction.”

Council Member Leslie Pool, who sponsored a resolution to move forward with the code amendment allowing tiny homes and RVs as ADUs, wrote on the City Council Message Board: “This week, item 55 presents an opportunity for a unique approach to public notice and public input for several LDC amendments coming this fall.

“One of my main concerns about past efforts to update the LDC is how residents would be notified about big changes, and how they would be heard about those changes. I wholeheartedly support a citywide, individual notification, and have publicly supported that approach for many years from the dais, in the media, and at LDC town halls and neighborhood gatherings. It just makes sense. It also makes sense to give folks more public input opportunities, which the joint meeting does, before PC considers their recommendations and council finally deliberates.

“Under state law, council may set a joint public hearing with the Planning Commission when considering LDC amendments and may adopt methods of notification for the hearing and subsequent council and commission meetings to deliberate on those amendments.” She concluded, “Citywide notification may be expensive, but it’s the right thing to do in the case of the amendments that are coming this fall.”

Council Member Mackenzie Kelly had just one question for staff, and that was how much the notification process costs. That information was not immediately available but Link promised it would be provided.

Council Member Alison Alter was concerned because Council did not have the part of the ordinance describing notice requirements, called Exhibit A. Later in the day, staff posted a revised version of the ordinance with Exhibit A attached.

As described by Link, Exhibit A directs the city manager to publish a notice about the meetings in the Austin American-Statesman at least 10 days before the joint public hearing. The amendment also directs the manager to notify the Community Registry and to mail a notice about the hearings to property owners and utility account holders for each parcel within the city’s full-purpose and limited-purpose jurisdictions at least 10 days before the joint public hearing.

According to the amendment, each notice should contain a brief description of the proposed amendments and provide information on a website that will allow members of the public to learn more about the amendments and protest requirements and provide feedback on the proposed code changes.

The city manager is also directed to notify people about the joint public hearing, the Planning Commission meeting and the City Council meeting on various social media sites, starting with the city’s website. Link said if Council approves the joint hearing proposal, a member of the Law Department would sit down with a representative from the Office of the City Clerk and staff for the Planning Commission to find dates for the joint public hearing and subsequent Planning Commission and Council meetings.

Whatever Council decides to do about these proposed land code amendments, they should not face the same problem that they did with four changes they adopted earlier this year. The same plaintiffs who derailed the rewrite of the Land Development Code are going back to court next week to argue that the city did not provide sufficient notice before enacting Affordability Unlocked, changes to the vertical mixed-use regulations, allowing residential uses in commercial zones and the compatibility ordinance. But Community Not Commodity, the group that has supported lawsuits over changes to the code in the past, is already stirring up opposition to the proposed amendments.

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