Thursday, July 27, 2017 – From AustinMonitor.com
The Community Development Commission voiced frustration over lack of outreach and discussion with the CodeNEXT team during a special called meeting earlier this month.
The first draft of CodeNEXT, Austin’s land code rewrite, has been out since January, but some commissioners felt the team excluded lower-income families and individuals from the dialogue.
Tensions brewed when the team presented the idea of density bonuses, which are incentives for developers to add more units in a building for families with a lower median income.
Ian Carlton, a consultant for ECONorthwest who is helping with CodeNEXT, said affordable housing units are aimed at families who make 60 to 80 percent of the median family income. Carlton said CodeNEXT will encourage expanding density bonuses to the majority of Austin in dense areas where affordable units could squeeze in.
“This is about putting affordable housing in areas of very high opportunity where development is already happening at a very low cost burden to the city of Austin,” Carlton said.
Commissioner Bertha Delgado, who was appointed in March and whose district represents East Austin, said she was uncomfortable making decisions concerning CodeNEXT because she was unfamiliar with its effects on lower-income families. Delgado also asked for the number of pages in the draft. Consultant Lisa Wise answered it is 1,200 pages.