Four City Council members signaled their discontent with the current direction of CodeNEXT process and announced an effort to develop a new code that is “equitable, sustainable, accessible, vibrant and community-driven.” Surrounded by supporters at a City Hall press conference Tuesday morning, Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo and Council members Alison Alter, Ora Houston and […]
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
Board of Adjustment wants in on CodeNEXT
The Board of Adjustment thinks that it was not given enough say in the code rewrites that are going to make up CodeNEXT, considering that it is the board that rules on variances to the city’s zoning regulations. At its June 11 meeting, even though the board had posted a request for a presentation on sign regulation on the […]
Posted inLand Development Code
CodeNEXT: Council debates supply and demand
Underpinning much of the debate over development and affordability in Austin is a simple question: Does increasing the number of homes make housing more affordable? At a Wednesday City Council meeting over CodeNEXT, Council members Alison Alter and Leslie Pool suggested that the new code could inhibit the creation of new affordable housing by increasing […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Council confronts thorny issue: How much more housing does Austin need?
City Council members engaged in yet another rambling, inconclusive debate over CodeNEXT Tuesday morning, this time over the amount of new housing that the new code should allow to be built. Currently, Council members are not in the process of actually crafting the code, but rather discussing and debating what they want CodeNEXT to achieve. […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Environmental Commission rejects Planning Commission CodeNEXT amendment
At their June 6 meeting, members of the Environmental Commission found themselves faced with an unusual question: “What if developers had the right to build up to 90 percent of their base impervious cover without having to abide by the city’s many development regulations?” At its last meeting, the Planning Commission passed a recommendation to […]
Posted inLand Development Code
CodeNEXT: Council agrees on big things but disagrees on key details
During their first day of deliberations on CodeNEXT, City Council members signaled agreement on a number of high-level statements about encouraging the construction of more housing along transportation corridors and not adding significant density to the interior of neighborhoods. And yet, the consensus only related to vague statements proposed by Mayor Steve Adler to guide […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Adopting code a significant challenge
Mayor Steve Adler continued his quest to gain consensus on CodeNEXT Tuesday as City Council began to deliberate adoption of the new Land Development Code. In pursuit of that end, Adler gave each person on the dais – including City Manager Spencer Cronk and staff from the Planning and Zoning Department – a hard hat […]
Posted inLand Development Code
City sued over CodeNEXT sign information
Billboard company owner Billy Reagan, who helped fund the petition drive to put the new Land Development Code on the November ballot, has sued the city. His suit is not to be confused with the lawsuit filed last week to attempt to force the city to put CodeNEXT on the ballot. In his suit, Reagan […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Planning commissioners feeling (relatively) good about CodeNEXT
Despite their own differences in opinion on development and the fever-pitch rhetoric surrounding CodeNEXT at City Hall, members of the Planning Commission generally have a positive outlook on the controversial overhaul of the Land Development Code. “I’m not going to say I’m happy with it, but it’s much better than (the draft) we got from […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Council votes not to put CodeNEXT petition on ballot
City Council members have voted against putting a CodeNEXT petition to a public vote, instead allowing a threatened lawsuit to proceed and a judge to determine whether the city is required to do so. “Putting this on the ballot is not proper under law,” said Mayor Steve Adler, who voted with the six-member majority. “(But) […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Adler tries to find consensus on CodeNEXT
As City Council prepares to begin deliberations on CodeNEXT next month, Mayor Steve Adler acknowledged Tuesday that no other issue that he has confronted during his three and a half years in office has divided the community as much as the proposed overhaul of the city’s Land Development Code. The tentative schedule unveiled by Planning […]
Posted inLand Development Code
CodeNEXT: What’s the plan, here?
After seeing the city spend five years and $8.5 million on CodeNEXT, some members of the Planning Commission are worried that the final product will be little more than a “plan to plan.” Currently, the commission is in the process of making recommendations about what the different zoning categories available under the new code should […]