The City of Austin announced its 2016 project schedule to preview CodeNEXT’s “Prescriptions” for four quality of life issues on the minds of Austinites.
CodeNEXT is an Imagine Austin initiative to modernize Austin’s outdated Land Development Code with a simpler, user-friendly code that creates and preserves people-friendly places.
“CodeNEXT will be important tool to fixing permitting, development services and neighborhood planning. It will put growth where we want it, protect our neighborhoods, and pave the way for affordability,” said Mayor Steve Adler. “The upcoming conversations will not be easy, but they are long overdue and I encourage Austinites to get engaged and to be open to collaborating in bold ways to solve long-standing problems.”
The Land Development Code plays a significant role in shaping places for people by determining what can be built in Austin, along with where and how much.
In advance of publishing the entire draft Land Development Code in January 2017, Austin residents will be privy to a series of written previews (Prescriptions) outlining how the new code will impact these four issues.
- Managing our growth; keeping our character (read Prescription here)
- Affordability (coming May 2016)
- Mobility (coming July 2016)
- Fiscal health in City planning decisions (coming September 2016)
The engagement series on the four Prescriptions – one published approximately every two months – will run from March to October.
CodeNEXT Advisory Group volunteers and the Austin community are invited to read and reflect on each topic in person and online. Engagement opportunities for the first Prescription “Managing our growth; keeping our character” include:
- SpeakUp Austin! online discussion forum
- March 29, 2016, Reddit AMA with CodeNEXT. Get notified by e-mail.
- 6 p.m. April 4, 2016, Public Input Session with CodeNEXT Advisory Group
- 9 a.m. April 9, 2016, CodeNEXT Community Walk, Meet at Once Over Coffee, 2009 S. First St., Austin
- CodeNEXT Road Show: Request a presentation for your group or organization.
- We are gauging interest from Austinites who want to give an Ignite-style “speedy presentation” sharing your view on a CodeNEXT topic.
“It is important that CodeNEXT be a two-way dialogue. It is an open invitation to the public to join our Advisory Group meetings and get involved,” said Jim Duncan, who chairs the CodeNEXT Advisory Group, whose members serve as a sounding board and ambassadors for the project.
Integrates lessons learned from ‘Sound Check’
The themes integrate more than a dozen lessons learned from the week-long “Sound Check” workshop last November.
“Austin is being challenged by some serious issues and real attention is needed in how we plan our city,” said Matt Lewis, Assistant Director of the Planning and Zoning Department charged with revising Austin’s Land Development Code. “The good news is we believe our problems are clear and curable.”
The CodeNEXT team is working from a comprehensive foundation steeped inImagine Austin and months of community listening.
Lewis added, “The community is ready for solutions. We have 12 people actively writing the development code this year and all of them are devoted to make this impactful for the community. We are enthusiastic about making this an open dialogue and moving forward together.”
Join Us! CodeNEXT: What’s the next Austin?