Yesterday, the city staff directing Austin’s sprawling CodeNEXT initiative released the latest version of the map they plan to use to redevelop established neighborhoods throughout our community.
This is nothing new: CodeNEXT’s mapping process has been fraught with controversy from the start, with each of its steps coming under heavy fire from homeowners, neighborhood activists, and community groups across the city.
The map released yesterday is no better. Like its predecessor, it is unfair, unwanted, and unlawful. It violates the City of Austin’s comprehensive plan, fosters residential and commercial demolition over neighborhood stability, and was drawn behind closed doors. It also uses improper criteria, such as maximizing redevelopment and profits, and applies them arbitrarily.
Starting today, Community Not Commodity is taking action to stop the CodeNEXT mapping process. We have launched a petition calling on Mayor Steve Adler and the rest of the Austin City Council to immediately rescind the initiative’s existing map and replace it with a legal, transparent, and professional process that implements Imagine Austin and our city’s neighborhood plans.
If it involves rezoning, the new mapping process must use widely acknowledged best practices and criteria approved by the City Council in an open and lawful manner.
Sign our petition to stop CodeNEXT’s mapping process. Then, take a moment and sign our petition to stop CodeNEXT’s displacement of Austin families, particularly on the city’s gentrification-prone East Side—and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.
Together we can build an Austin for everyone!