Austin Council aims to take first land code vote Wednesday
Austin’s City Council has the final decision on the approval of the land development code changes.
Austin (KXAN) — Austin City Council is hoping to take the first of three required votes to overhaul the city’s land development code on Wednesday, city leaders say.
The code defines the rules for what and where you can build in the city. It has not had a major overhaul in three decades. This current process is the city’s latest attempt to overhaul the code.
Monday began the start of the council’s process to inch toward with a “first reading” of the city’s land development code. The eleven members of Austin’s council are going through the steps of proposing and approving amendments to the draft of the Land Development Code. The council met again Tuesday morning to continue the process and due to scheduling conflicts their meeting will resume again Tuesday night from 8 to 11 p.m., Austin Mayor Steve Adler explained.
The mayor noted that it is his intent to have the council take the first of three required votes on the draft code Wednesday, though other council members pushed back at the notion of nailing down a specific time for that vote. Once that vote happens, the council will need to have second and third readings of the draft code before it becomes official. The City of Austin’s timeline doesn’t anticipate those second and third votes happening any sooner than January.
Austin’s City Council has the final decision on the approval of the land development code changes.
Some of the proposed revisions to the city’s development code focus on slowing gentrification in east Austin, and adding more housing density near central and west Austin, and increasing affordable housing stock across the city. The discussion Tuesday morning largely focused on affordability and how what the best strategy would be to guarantee that affordable housing units are built in the city.
Council’s deliberation this week follows Saturday’s 10-hour hearing where hundreds of people showed up to hear and speak about recommendations.
Leading up to this point
In May, Austin City Council gave city staff direction on what to prioritize with this overhaul of the city’s land development code.
On October 4, city staff published a draft of the code overhaul as well as interactive maps of the proposed zoning changes. City staff proposed more revisions in a report on October 25.
The city says they got public feedback via open houses, office hours, public testing, town halls, but that they can’t quantify exactly how many people weighed in on the draft. Based on what the public said and based on the Planning Commission’s recommendations, city staff crafted a report to guide council.
In the report, staff recommends more strategies to reach the city’s goals for this land-use code revamp. The goals touched on by the recommendations include adding density, boosting affordability, curbing displacement/ gentrification, adding density near transit “high opportunity areas”, and incentivizing the creation of “missing middle housing” (multi-unit housing, anything from duplexes all the way up to apartment buildings).
City council members explained during Monday’s discussion that the recommendations from the Planning Commission which city staff agreed with have been included in the base document that the council is voting on.