Austin’s City Manager and his staff is going to move at warp speed to get the new land development code rewrite done.
And that’s got neighborhood activists worried. David King is the former president of the Austin Neighborhoods Council and says compared to the CodeNEXT process, public involvement with this is very limited. “The way you would participate is you would call the staff and you would schedule an appointment to provide your input. Othewise you would have to attend a Planning Commission public hearing when draft code and zoning maps are prepared.” King adds “And when you look at the Planning Commission it doesn’t comply with the City Charter right now. It’s loaded with developer interests. And so the handwriting is on the wall.”
King is calling on the city to do a limited phased-in rollout of the new land development code.King says he believes the city is going much too fast and there will be unintended consequences as a result. “These changes are the most fundamental changes to our land development code in the history of this city! And they will set us on a different course going forward. That’s how important this change will be to our city.”
(Photo Shutterstock/By Brandon Seidel)
