CodeNEXT IS BACK!

You may have heard: CodeNEXT IS BACK!
On October 4, 2019, the City of Austin unveiled its latest draft of the rewrite of its Land Development Code, which will affect how land is developed throughout the city-including which environmental regulations apply and where certain land uses can be built. Since its release, our staff has been working diligently to review the new draft code and to offer suggestions for how it can be improved.

Thus far, we have been able to influence two major improvements:

1. All proposed amendments to the Save Our Springs Initiative Ordinance, which protects water quality in the Barton Springs Zone, have been officially removed from the draft.
2. A major error to the Barton Springs Zone Overlay was identified by our staff, and the City has committed to correcting it in its next round of amendments. This error would have allowed large-scale car dealerships and big box stores to develop over the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer.

SOS is extremely appreciative of the Mayor & City Council for assisting us with getting the proposed SOS Ordinance amendments removed from the LDC rewrite. It is highly likely that these amendments will come back some time in 2020, so we must stay vigilant, but we are hopeful that such a process, if it occurs, will be more collaborative and deliberative.

Additionally, there are several positive improvements proposed in CodeNEXT that we wholeheartedly support, including:

• Requiring redeveloping properties to participate in flood mitigation;

• Making green storm water infrastructure a necessary component of new roads associated with site plans and residential subdivisions;

• Adopting steep slope protections for urban watersheds; and

• Lowering the threshold that triggers water quality control requirements to 5,000 square feet of impervious cover.

However, there's still much work to do.
As Austin's population continues to increase and our climate becomes more susceptible to longer, more severe periods of drought, it is more important than ever that we have a Land Development Code that is responsive to these challenges. We need a code that will help make development more water-efficient and climate-resilient, and we need a code that won't lose sight of what made Austin special in the first place-it's connection to nature.

With this in mind, we are asking that the City Council adopt several critical amendments to CodeNEXT to make it more climate-responsive. These amendments are summarized here, as part of our preliminary CodeGREEN recommendations. We are continuing to review the code and are working with other environmental groups to gather information, so please know that these are all still subject to change and should not be read as our comprehensive list.

We'd love your feedback!
If you have some environmental-focused suggestions that you'd like to share with us to consider in our comments, please send them [email protected]. We'd also encourage you to participate in the public meetings/public hearings, which can be found at http://www.austintexas.gov/ldc.

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