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 […]
CodeNEXT
CodeNEXT is the name given to the land development code rewrite process undertaken in the early 2010s by the City of Austin.
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 inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Conspiracies
Think before you speak… As we reported, last week’s final meeting of the Visitor Impact Task Force was a marathon affair. After nearly six months of meetings, the group kicked off the final round of bargaining over the details of a potential Austin Convention Center expansion with rumors swirling that the final confab could last […]
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 inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Art and other concerns
Austin artists aren’t good enough?… As part of its consent agenda on Thursday, City Council approved three contracts with firms and artists to provide artwork to the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and an Austin Energy cooling plant. Council approved the electric utility to spend up to $202,500 for the cooling plant artwork, to be provided by […]
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 inAustin
Is Austin’s ‘economic segregation’ here to stay?
“Today you are going to find out that we are really not quite as good as we claim to be.” On that ominous note, Austin Board of Realtors CEO Paul Hilgers opened Tuesday’s luncheon hosted by the Real Estate Council of Austin. Steven Pedigo, who is the director of research for the Creative Class Group, […]