AUSTIN, Texas -- Mayor Steve Adler Wednesday proposed the idea that City Council put an end to CodeNext, the city’s rewrite to the land development code that has caused a lot of controversy.
Adler brought up the possibility on the City of Austin Council Message Board. Adler wrote, in part:
“Austin’s biggest challenges, such as increasing unaffordability, displacement, gentrification, flooding, and traffic are getting worse. The land development code should be an important tool to help with these challenges, however, our current code is not serving us well. The need to revise this land development code is greater than ever before. Yet, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the CodeNEXT process, so divisive and poisoned, will not get us to a better place. We should consider the option: cease the CodeNEXT process and ask the City Manager to create a new process that will help us move forward together."
In the post, Adler also mentioned that he proud of the City Council for its work on traffic, housing, affordability, displacement, gentrification, equity and sustainability.
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The mayor went on to write that "CodeNEXT, the current process of rewriting our land development code, is big, complicated, technical, and it's largely misunderstood…Colleagues, I believe we should consider if the best way ultimately to find the right path to fix our land development code is to cease our current process."
Recently, a district judge ruled that Austin voters will decide whether to require votes on land development code rewrites like CodeNEXT. The decision came after thousands of people signed a petition asking that Austinites get a chance to vote on land development and zoning. The City of Austin argued Texas law prohibited zoning from going through the election process.
Austin City Council Member District 4 Gregorio “Greg” Casar released the following statement:
"It’s clear from the Council’s June work sessions that our current process isn’t working. But, our community desperately needs us to change the status quo to improve the affordability, mobility, and sustainability of Austin. Instead of spending the next few months in a process that isn’t working, I support creating a new process that takes the information we’ve learned so far and sets us up to reform our land development code in a way that respects the facts and addresses the needs of people in our city."
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