Austin's neighborhood planning processes are "inequitable, lack transparency and may constitute a risk to fair housing choice," according to an audit recently conducted by the city. The audit results, which were presented Monday to the City Council Audit and Finance Committee, showed the majority of the city's 30 neighborhood plans are outdated, and that its so-called contact teams lack neighborhood participation, are inaccessible to neighborhood stakeholders and do not line up with Imagine Austin, the city's comprehensive plan. The creation of neighborhood plans began in 1997 during an at-large City Council system. In 1999, the city set a goal of completing 60 planning areas in less than six years, but auditors said the time it takes to develop and adopt a neighborhood plan has slowed over time. Most recently, it has taken almost six years for plans to be completed. At this pace, the audit showed it would take 81 years to complete neighborhood plans for the entire city. "As the city annexes more areas and continues to grow in neighborhoods not covered by existing plans, the relative coverage of neighborhood plans will decline," auditors wrote.

Creation of a neighborhood plan 

Under the existing process, the Planning and Zoning Department forms a neighborhood contact team consisting of area volunteer advocates following City Council's adoption of the neighborhood plan. The contact team's job is to work with city staff to implement plan recommendations, review and initiate plan amendments, serve as community points of contact, and work on behalf of other neighborhood stakeholders. Finally, the volunteers vote to adopt bylaws and then operate independently.

Finding 1: The city's neighborhood planning efforts are inequitable and lack participation

The audit said the city's neighborhood planning process doesn't have enough citizen participation, nor does it have a minimum participation threshold for plan approvals. In addition, two neighborhood plans and parts of a third don't have an associated contact team. As of 2015, the neighborhood plans cover 53 neighborhood areas—26 percent of the city—primarily in the urban core, according to the Office of the City Auditor. The report also showed voters were not reflective of neighbor demographics, with renters disproportionately underrepresented. For example, only 19 people participated in the vote of one neighborhood plan that covers an area of nearly 13,000 residents. In addition, some of the plans use demographics from the 1990 census and have not been updated since the plans' creations.

Finding 2: Neighborhood plan contact teams make it hard for the public to engage and make decisions

Some neighborhood plans do not have contact teams, the audit showed. Eighteen out of the 31 neighborhoods with contact teams had no way of knowing about contact team meetings, and only five out of the 31 neighborhoods provided complete information about upcoming contact team meetings. In addition, contact information for the teams was lacking, inaccurate or outdated, the audit found. Many of the contact teams' bylaws made citizen voting difficult, according to the report. The audit listed barriers such as requiring residents to live in the neighborhood for a minimum amount of time, requiring voters be approved by an executive committee and requiring memberships in separate neighborhood organizations—some of which require dues be paid. The auditors said some contact team bylaws also deviated from the Planning and Zoning Department's standard template and lacked items such as rules on conflicts of interest and requirements for recording meetings. The report also found contact team definitions were inconsistent across the 30 plans. The audit found only one of the 31 neighborhood contact teams had representatives from every member category described in the city's Land Development Code.

Finding 3: Neighborhood plans are outdated, incomplete or inconsistent with the city's comprehensive plan

The report said the city is not checking periodically that the plans remain current. The median age of the plans is 14 years old, and all but one plan was adopted prior to the comp plan's inception in 2012. No plans have been updated since, and 59 percent of the plan recommendations are incomplete. "The city of Austin is not working with neighborhood planning contact teams to ensure neighborhood plans remain current and aligned through periodic updates," auditors wrote. In 2015, the Planning and Zoning Department found 59 percent of the 3,353 recommendations included in neighborhood plans were incomplete. Eight of the 30 plans include recommendations that are more than 50 percent implemented. Auditors said many of the city's 30 neighborhood plans did not align with Imagine Austin. For example, the comprehensive plan calls for citywide affordability, but only half the neighborhood plans include this goal. The implementation deadlines for the neighborhood plans and Imagine Austin are also inconsistent, auditors wrote. "The city's neighborhood plans may not reflect the present-day needs and vision that stakeholders have for their neighborhoods or their city," auditors wrote.

Finding 4: Neighborhoods have not considered fair housing choice

Only one neighborhood plan mentions fair housing, and the bylaws template set by the Planning and Zoning Department doesn't reference fair housing choice, according to auditors. The report said the Planning and Zoning Department has also not provided training on topics related to fair housing. "Current land use policies and practices that do not incorporate fair housing concepts, if unaddressed, could create a risk of litigation against the City or a risk of losing federal grants," auditors wrote. The city of Austin gets about $10 million annually in federal Housing and Urban Development funds, according to the report.

City reactions and next steps

Austin Planning and Zoning Director Greg Guernsey said he agreed with most of the auditors' recommendations. He said the department is currently reevaluating the neighborhood planning program as it relates to Imagine Austin, the new 10-1 City Council system and "issues of equity and feasibility." Guernsey said city staff is also developing a concept that identifies and prioritizes future small-area "hot spots" within the city, and he said he wants to look into addressing the issues of providing training for affordable housing and changing neighborhood plan bylaws to be more inclusive. He said city staff is currently working on a neighborhood plan for the North Shoal Creek area, and the Rosedale neighborhood is next in line. City Auditor Corrie Stokes did not wish to discuss which neighborhoods were out of compliance or inconsistent. "We saw issues in a lot of different teams across the city," she said, adding the audit's goal was to look at the city's role as a whole in neighborhood planning processes. District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool said she felt the responsibility of implementing recommendations fell to the city. "I get the sense that we're not really talking about the neighborhoods falling down on the job, but rather the city," she said, referring to lack sufficient training and lack of communication between residents and the city. Stokes said the city auditor's office will follow up with the Planning and Zoning Department periodically to see whether the recommendations have been implemented or are being addressed.   This story has been updated to reflect a neighborhood contact team is formed following City Council adoption of a neighborhood plan.