The Planning Commission is divided over the role existing neighborhood plans should play in the new Land Development Code. Residents who benefit from neighborhood plans defended their merits Tuesday and urged commissioners to do more to help preserve those plans in the new code, but the commission itself was torn over whether such plans work […]
neighborhood plan
Posted inPlanning
Code rewrite leaves little room for small area planning pilot
City Council will not be taking action Thursday on a resolution intended to direct City Manager Spencer Cronk to initiate a pilot small area planning project on North Lamar Boulevard between Tech Ridge Transit Center and U.S. Highway 183. Although the pilot includes portions of District 4, Council Member Greg Casar pulled the item for […]
Posted inPlanning
Neighborhood planning poised to change
The Planning Commission was recently briefed on the future of small area planning by Planning and Zoning staff. Austin has focused its small area planning around the neighborhood planning strategy since a 1997 City Council resolution. But subsequent to a resolution passed in September 2017, staffers have come up with three new planning services that […]
Posted inPlanning
Shoal Creek plan includes wins, losses for density advocates
On Thursday, City Council unanimously approved the North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Plan, a document that outlines how the neighborhood, which is bound by MoPac Expressway, U.S. Highway 183, Burnet Road and Anderson Lane, will accommodate future population growth. The plan does not put in place any new zoning regulations. Instead, it provides a framework that […]
Posted inCity Council
North Shoal Creek plan prompts debate over density
City Council may have given up on CodeNEXT, the proposed comprehensive rewrite of the city’s Land Development Code, but the debate over growth and development is certainly not going away. On Thursday, Council will take up the North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Plan, which lays out the principles of development for the area bounded by U.S. […]
Posted inPlanning
North Shoal Creek plan put on hold
Despite an overwhelming workload courtesy of CodeNEXT, Planning Commissioners managed to spend more than three hours discussing a plan centered on just one neighborhood at its most recent regular meeting. Neighbors have been pushing for a North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Plan for about a decade and actively working on the current plan for two years. […]
Posted inPlanning
City looks to change neighborhood plan process
The Planning Commission has unanimously endorsed a new approach to the development of neighborhood plans that could shrink the process to six months, down from two to three years. Mark Walters, who is with the city’s Planning and Zoning Department, explained to the commission on Tuesday that the new approach is intended to address Zucker […]
Posted inAustin
As East Austin changes, what power do neighbors have to stop it?
Recently, residents of the city’s East Cesar Chavez neighborhood asked a city of Austin committee to put in place interim controls potentially limiting the influx of new bars, restaurants and breweries. The decision was delayed – and then eventually denied. Had the action gone through, it would have been a rare decision. As things stand […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Council moves toward closing small-lot loophole
When the small-lot amnesty tool was adopted by the city, no one envisioned that it would lead to houses that spanned two small lots being demolished in order to build more new homes. But that is what’s happening today. And, though some would like that practice to continue, others just can’t get past the fact […]
Posted inThe Code
Small-lot code fix divides commissioners
Plans to tighten the city’s code to prevent an unintended use of the city’s small-lot amnesty provision are moving to City Council without a recommendation from the Planning Commission. Small-lot amnesty allows the development of lots as small as 2,500 square feet for neighborhoods that have opted in to the standards in their neighborhood plans. […]
Posted inThe Code
Planning Commission to take a closer look at neighborhood infill tools
Most members of the Planning Commission appear to believe that something should change about city infill tools attached to neighborhood plans, but none appear certain about what specifically should change. After a half-hour discussion with city staff about how neighborhoods dealing with unwanted infill tools could remove them from their neighborhood plans and how the […]
Posted inDevelopment
Council gets first crack at South Austin Plan
Despite an unexpected rescheduling of the public hearing, neighbors concerned about the South Austin Combined Neighborhood Plan showed up in force Friday afternoon. City Council members took up the plan Friday, after making the unorthodox decision late Thursday evening to continue their overstuffed agenda to a second day. Because of the unanticipated rescheduling, Council held […]