News

Please leave this field empty Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

The complete rewrite of the city’s Land Development Code known as CodeNEXT will have significant effects on housing, transportation and commercial development throughout Austin in the coming years. But so far, public input on the code has been anything but equal across the city.

Online feedback, in particular, has been overwhelmingly focused on the wealthiest parts of the city.

City staff recently released a map of online comment on CodeNEXT, showing which parts of the city people have weighed in on. Those comments are overwhelmingly concentrated in the city center. They become somewhat sparser in West Austin and virtually disappear along the eastern edges of the city.

Expect the release of CodeNEXT version 2.0 on Friday, Sept. 15. City staff responsible for the land use code rewrite revealed the date almost as an afterthought during Tuesday’s joint meeting of the Planning Commission and Zoning and Platting Com­mission, following an update by consultants on how the code will deal with nonconforming uses and structures, and changes in the Code’s Process and Procedures.

The biggest shock to commissioners seemingly came when consultant Lisa Wise mentioned the potential removal of conditional overlays – used on specific properties in combination with zoning districts to further restrict land use – because it’s not “recognized as best practice” across the country and “doesn’t seem sustainable.” Wise said consultants have identified nearly 4,000 COs in use citywide. Moving forward, they’ve recommended modifying base zones and pulling apart the process. Builders will instead be able to request conditional use permits (CUPs, which require commission approval) and minor use permits (MUPs, which can be approved by the city’s Development Services staff). Wise also noted that the permits would be appealable to PC and ZAP, as well as City Council. The appeals process will have a fee associated with it, but Wise said the cost has yet to be determined.

For five weeks in 2001, Karen Paup spent her afternoons with other Austin residents talking about the city’s changing Eastside. The group included a pastor, a developer and a now-professor at New York University.

“We shared anecdotes, we looked at data,” said Paup, who works for Texas Housers, a nonprofit focused on low-income housing. “We felt that there was a sense of urgency expressed by the council in setting up the committee and a short timeframe for getting an answer.”

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.

View the full article on AustinMonitor.com