Ward Tisdale resigned today as president of the Real Estate Council of Austin, ending a three-year tenure atop the development-focused organization. As president, Tisdale was responsible for the administration and day-to-day operations at RECA, which represents more than 1,900 Cental Texas commercial real estate professionals. Membership was notified mid-day about the leadership change. His resignation comes the same day news broke about Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo stepping down to lead Houston's police department. "[Tisdale] has given RECA three years of solid leadership and has done a very good job. We appreciate his service to the organization," said Brian Cassidy, RECA board chair and managing partner of the Locke Lord LLP law office in Austin, in a written statement to organization members. A search process is immediately underway to replace Tisdale, according to the RECA membership letter. Cassidy also noted significant recent structural changes within RECA that enable the organization to weigh in on "important policy debates." "Finding a new leader gives us an opportunity to continue to strengthen the organization and its ability to accomplish RECA's core mission," Cassidy's letter read. Among ongoing policy debates, Tisdale was particularly vocal about seeing the city of Austin complete its land development code rewrite process, dubbed CodeNEXT. City officials announced this week that a first public review draft of the revised code should be available by January—approximately two years later than originally anticipated. "We've been patient with these delays," Tisdale said in June. "We expect City Council and staff to meet their most recent deadline." He called for a revised land development code that incentivizes the construction of below-market value housing, more affordable housing and high-density housing. No timeline has been publicly released by RECA for filling the vacancy left by Tisdale.