An application for commercial zoning at the corner of a North Austin neighborhood elicited a tiresome recommendation from the Zoning and Platting Commission at its Aug. 15 meeting. Commissioners had to go item by item through a list of zoning district uses, almost as if they were crafting a new zone, before signing off on […]
City of Austin Zoning and Platting Commission
The City of Austin’s Zoning and Platting Commission addresses issues of land use as assigned to it by Austin’s City Code. It has sovereign authority, or the right to make final decisions on certain cases.
Posted inPlanning
Flag lots could be making a comeback
There’s more to CodeNEXT than zoning, believe it or not, and last week the land use commissions received an update from staff on non-zoning changes that would be part of the rewrite’s second draft, with the hottest item of discussion being the loosening of flag lot regulations. The subdivision tool, intended to facilitate infill and […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Commission fights for seat at CodeNEXT table
The Zoning and Platting Commission has been perceived by some as the proverbial “stick in the mud” since the CodeNEXT drafting process began earlier this year, but a resolution passed at City Council’s most recent meeting reiterates the commission’s inability to stop the scheduled third reading of the new code by Council next April. According […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Consultants dodge questions on ideology behind CodeNEXT
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 […]
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
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 inRadio
Austin Monitor Radio: Mary Ingle and David King on CodeNEXT
Austin Neighborhoods Council president Mary Ingle and Zoning and Platting Commissioner David King join Austin Monitor publisher Mike Kanin to chat about CodeNEXT. Audio is embedded below: [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/317953109″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
Posted inPlanning
Zoning and Platting Commission debates its role in deciding reasonable use
Opposing zoning philosophies came to a head at Tuesday night’s Zoning and Platting Commission meeting, resulting in a split vote over a conditional overlay removal request for a planned gas station project in Northeast Austin. Last year, City Council approved commercial mixed-use conditional overlay zoning for the property at 13007 Cantarra Drive. Agent Alice Glasco, […]
Posted inLand Development Code
CodeNEXT consultants respond to accusations of dividing city
Two weeks after the Zoning and Platting Commission passed a resolution stating that the CodeNEXT draft text “provides two very different, separate codes,” the CodeNEXT consultants reassured commissioners during the joint land use work session Tuesday night that the draft does in fact propose only one code. The draft has two different types of zoning categories: the form-based […]
Posted inZoning
King upholds neighborhood-first attitude in environmental variances case
Although some considered it off-topic, newly appointed Zoning and Platting Commissioner David King brought a neighborhood-centered perspective to the forefront of an environmental variances case, which the commission voted to recommend at its March 7 meeting. King had requested the item be pulled off the consent agenda at the beginning of the meeting, apologizing that […]
Posted inThe Code
Commission asks Council to delay CodeNEXT mapping
In an act of defiance to the momentum of the CodeNEXT juggernaut, the Zoning and Platting Commission passed a resolution at the closing of its March 7 meeting calling on City Council to direct Planning and Zoning Department staff and consultants to delay the April 18 release of the CodeNEXT mapping until a “cohesive and unified […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Wider discretionary powers for Board of Adjustment envisioned in CodeNEXT draft
Assistant city attorney Brent Lloyd made a small presentation at the joint meeting of the land use commissions last Tuesday night outlining a possible reconfiguration of the Board of Adjustment’s role in city planning as part of the changes on the CodeNEXT horizon. Currently the BoA is mostly occupied by granting variances, specifically those relating […]