Making a rare appearance, an elephant was spotted waltzing through the Boards and Commissions Room at City Hall during the May 30 land use joint commission meeting. Supposedly, the large creature has always been in the room during CodeNEXT work sessions, but nobody wants to acknowledge it – profit. Everyone knows developers make a killing […]
Land Development Code
Posted inLand Development Code
Council digests CodeNEXT compatibility standards
City Council members don’t know quite what to make of the new design and compatibility standards offered in the current draft of CodeNEXT, the proposed overhaul of the city’s Land Development Code. During a Council work session Wednesday, a number of Council members voiced confusion and concern about whether the new code would allow tall […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Land use commissions’ collaboration on CodeNEXT shows signs of wear
Months of the land use commissions generally seeing eye-to-eye regarding the CodeNEXT draft text and mapping may be over after tensions flared between members of the Planning and Zoning and Platting commissions during their May 30 joint meeting. Just before the commissions met last Tuesday night to hear from staff and consultants about the methodology […]
Posted inLand Development Code
More questions than answers for Council on CodeNEXT
City Council members are still having a hard time understanding exactly what CodeNEXT, the proposed overhaul of the city’s land development code, will mean for the city. That was made clear at a public hearing Wednesday, during which a number of Council members expressed confusion or frustration over the information they have been provided by […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Mixed vibes surround Bouldin carport variance
It takes more than heat and birds to justify a carport in this town. Heat and birds are just a part of life in Austin, Texas. That was the lesson at the Board of Adjustment for Aaron McGarry, who owns the home at 2210 S. Second St. McGarry is asking to reduce the front setback from […]
Posted inHousing
Is ‘missing middle’ housing still missing from CodeNEXT?
Jake Wegmann, an assistant professor of housing and real estate at the University of Texas, stood on the sidewalk in Mueller, a large mixed-use development on the site of Austin’s old airport. He pointed across the street to a string of attached, two-story homes. “These are town homes,” he said. “Here’s some missing middle housing.” […]
Posted inHousing
What is ‘missing middle’ housing?
Annette Naish used to work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, traveling across the U.S. responding to natural disasters. “I found out that in this country there are some of the most wonderful people in the history of the Western world,” she said. Now that she’s retired, Naish tends to stay in North Austin, at […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Commission considers flood survivors in CodeNEXT recommendation
CodeNEXT will make floods worse and displace more low-income Austin residents: That was the opinion of several residents and former residents of Dove Springs, a community that bore the brunt of the 2013 and 2015 Onion Creek floods, who spoke at the Environmental Commission’s May 17 meeting. In response, commissioners voted to amend their draft […]
Posted inLand Development Code
In Hyde Park, residents question how CodeNEXT will be implemented
Since the city released its first draft of a new land development code earlier this year, residents and city leaders have been working to understand how it will shape Austin neighborhoods. In Hyde Park, residents have adopted a tool that regulates development and aims to preserve the historic neighborhood’s character, but some say this exempts […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Zoning and Platting brainstorms for CodeNEXT recommendation
The Good, the Missing and the Unacceptable: not a reboot of the Clint Eastwood classic, but the categories of CodeNEXT criticism established as the foundation of the Zoning and Platting Commission’s letter of recommendation at its May 16 meeting. Like a moving train, the CodeNEXT review process has not lost momentum since the draft text […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Planning Commission assembles CodeNEXT working groups
CodeNEXT has a way of inspiring drama, even over as something as mundane as the approval of working groups. Case in point: Planning Commissioner Patricia Seeger attempted to make a motion on May 9 to approve breaking into three committees to tackle the different components of the draft land-use code: one to analyze the draft […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Zoning and Platting looks to pinpoint gentrification
As the only major growth city in the U.S. with a declining African-American population, Austin knows it has a gentrification problem, and the Zoning and Platting Commission took a step toward addressing it on May 2. Commissioners unanimously passed a motion asking staff to develop criteria for what makes an area at risk of displacement […]