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Tag Archives: City of Austin Zoning and Platting Commission

City demographer smashes assumptions about growth at CodeNEXT meeting

For the past year, the land use commissions have been reviewing the drafts of CodeNEXT, and the discussions have primarily revolved around how to accommodate the incredible population growth the city has experienced for the past few decades. About two…

CodeNEXT wrong on PUDs, says commission

Waiting for the release of the third and final draft of CodeNEXT has not stopped the Zoning and Platting Commission from continuing to criticize the second draft, even after the commission submitted its formal recommendation last October. One of the…

Flag lot variance request revived after failed approval

Having already been postponed once before, a plat application for a new subdivision in West Austin was postponed again by the Zoning and Platting Commission at its Jan. 2 meeting after a motion to approve failed to pass. Two of…

Commission tries in vain to add affordability requirements to commercial rezone

The legal constraints of Vertical Mixed Use zoning stalled efforts to add income-restricted affordable housing to a rezoning request at the Zoning and Platting Commission’s Dec. 19 meeting. The 2-acre property at 9829 1/2 North Lake Creek Parkway is currently…

Commission demands more precision in CodeNEXT land uses

It’s easy to get lost in the new CodeNEXT zoning categories and their form-based considerations without keeping in mind their underlying purpose: setting the standards for how properties in Austin can be used. At the Nov. 28 joint meeting of…

Five years later, Imagine Austin gets progress report but no update

Despite a long road ahead, the progress report on Imagine Austin presented at the Nov. 7 joint land use commission meeting indicated that the city was on track in its implementation of the comprehensive plan. Still, some commissioners expressed frustration…

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Land use commissions diverge ahead of CodeNEXT third draft

Differences of opinion between the Planning Commission and Zoning and Platting Commission are becoming more distinct. The Zoning and Platting Commission managed to submit an official recommendation on Monday, whereas the Planning Commission passed a less formal resolution on Wednesday,…

Commission experiences déjà vu when previous case returns

Rezoning a property is an arduous and lengthy exercise on its own, but for some, it is not enough to remove cumbersome restrictions. Last week, the Zoning and Platting Commission voted to approve the staff recommendation to terminate a public…

Commission vents about CodeNEXT's momentum

Somewhere, hiding mysteriously in the drafting timeline of the new land use code, there is a point of no return. The Zoning and Platting Commission, a body that has repeatedly called for the CodeNEXT review process to be slowed down,…

CodeNEXT 2.0 facilitates affordable housing, but where?

The Halloween deadline for CodeNEXT’s third draft recommendations is closing in for the land use commissions, and the sense of urgency that has driven the review process thus far teetered on full-blown panic at Tuesday’s joint meeting. The new land…

Will CodeNEXT help protect against the next big flood?

When Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston last month, the city’s flood mitigation deficiencies came under fire. In Austin, the Halloween Floods of 2013 and 2015 raised similar questions about Austin’s infrastructure, so commissioners at the Sept. 19 joint land use meeting…

Commissioners poke holes in consultant's housing capacity predictions

Austinites would like CodeNEXT to solve a lot of the city’s problems, and the housing crisis is chief among those problems. At the Sept. 19 meeting of the joint land use commissions, John Fregonese of Fregonese Associates claimed that the…

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