The CodeNEXT process received an extension on Thursday after Austin City Council voted for the creation of a third draft of the code and zoning maps before it heads to the dais for final deliberations.
The third draft meets concerns expressed by council members and officials that the city’s land-use commissions—the Planning Commission and the Zoning and Platting Commission—did not have enough time in the original timeline for CodeNEXT, the city’s rewrite of the land development code.
While council wanted to give the commissions more time, they were adamant about holding the process to an April 2018 finish line. In giving the commissions an extra draft, they cut their own deliberation time nearly in half.
“This allows us to be sure to leverage the expertise of our land-use commissions,” District 10 Council Member Alison Alter, who sponsored the resolution, said on Thursday. “It enhances transparency and invites people to engage with the process.”
In the original timeline, the land-use commissions would have received the second draft in August, made their recommendations by the end of October and passed it on to City Council for first reading on Dec. 14. Council would receive the second draft with the commissions’ recommendation and deliberate until the end of January. Staff would draft a third version of the code and maps, present it to council in March for second and third reading with final adoption due in April.
The new timeline still presents the second draft to the commissions by August but explicitly includes the Environmental Commission and Historic Landmark Commission as recipients of the second draft. Commissions will make recommendations through October. Staff will then take November to produce a third draft and bring it back to the Planning Commission and the Zoning and Platting Commission for another round of recommendations, which they will be able to make until Jan. 11.
Council will receive the third draft with the second round of the land use commissions’ for first reading in February. Staff will produce a fourth draft between the first and second reading at the end of March. Second and third readings, as well as final adoption, are scheduled for April.
While council wanted to be strict on the April deadline, both Mayor Steve Adler and District 9 Council Member Kathie Tovo said they would not pass a code until they are certain it is right for the city and a deadline extension will occur if necessary.