This Thursday, April 11th, the Austin City Council will consider the city manager’s important memo asking for policy direction on the rewrite of our Land Development Code.

Please attend the hearing or contact your council member and tell him or her you want an inclusive public process, with robust community input—not a predetermined outcome written by city bureaucrats and land developers. 

The city council’s responses to the city manager’s memo aim to guide the content of the next Land Development Code and, consequently, the future of Austin’s neighborhoods. The fundamental question is whether residents will retain their right to be heard before their properties and their neighborhoods are rezoned—or whether local officials will instead use the mapping process to rezone the entire city at one time, as was attempted with CodeNEXT.

Here is the approach we favor:

  • We want a process that leads to a community conversation around the city manager’s questions. We don’t want answers from the council that preempt that conversation.
  • We want to retain the right to provide real input into zoning decisions (mapping) which will affect our neighborhoods and our neighbors’ ability to stay in their homes. We don’t want the city to present us with a completed code and map.
  • We want smart decisions about housing capacity and housing demand based on facts and expert demographic opinions. We don’t want housing capacity decision-making that ignores the fact that redevelopment will displace residents, especially low-income families.
  • We want smart decisions that calibrate parking, compatibility, and the location of commercial uses to the conditions on the ground. We want a code that allows for context-specific decision-making that involves the local community.
  • We want to locate new housing density and housing types using corridor and small area planning processes so that we can tailor the land use and transportation elements to individual corridors and transit nodes—and avoid consequences such as displacement, traffic congestion, and pedestrian safety issues. We don’t want one-size fits all prescriptions that treat all corridors and the areas surrounding them as the same.

The city manager asked the city council to choose from among three policy options:

  1. Maintain the status quo as to density, compatibility, and parking
  2. Adopt CodeNEXT’s higher density levels with reduced compatibility and parking standards
  3. Add even more density, less compatibility, and less on-site parking than prescribed by CodeNEXT

The memo clearly suggests City STAFF wants CodenEXT on steroids. What is missing from the city manager’s exercise is an impact assessment of the cumulative effect that these decisions will have on all of our neighborhoods, across the city.

The community rejected CodeNEXT because it was a bad plan. It disregarded public input and ignored the concerns everyday Austinites have when it comes to issues like density, compatibility, and parking.

Contact our mayor and your council member and tell them we can’t afford to make the same mistake again! Tell them that answers to the city manager’s questions can only be found through an open, inclusive, community-based process. Check this map if you aren’t sure which council member represents you.

 

Mayor Steve Adler:
steve.adler@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2100

Natasha Harper-Madison (District 1):
natasha.madison@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2101

Delia Garza (District 2):
delia.garza@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2102

Sabino Renteria (District 3):
sabino.renteria@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2103

Greg Casar (District 4):
gregorio.casar@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2104

Ann Kitchen (District 5):
ann.kitchen@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2105

Jimmy Flannigan (District 6):
jimmy.flannigan@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2106

Leslie Pool (District 7):
leslie.pool@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2107

Paige Ellis (District 8):
paige.ellis@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2108

Kathie Tovo (District 9):
kathie.tovo@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2109

Alison Alter (District 10):
alison.alter@austintexas.gov | 512-978-2110

 

Together we can build an Austin for everyone!