After four years and $4 million, the city of Austin released the first draft of CodeNEXT, the overhaul of Austin’s land development code. The 1,100-plus-page document released Jan. 30 is text-only—no maps—and is the first step in a 14-month process that will allow the public and city officials to examine and digest the code piece by piece. 

“I don’t think there is anything we will do this year as a city that is going to be more important than the rewrite of the land development code,” Mayor Steve Adler said during the draft release announcement. “This is the document that describes how we look as a city, how we function as a city, how we build as a city.”

The text provides a fresh and more organized version of city planning methods. It lays out a larger variety of simplified zoning districts but allows for fewer zoning combinations, which is cited as a pitfall of the current code. The code introduces new ideas that will bring change, such as transect zones that encourage density and are loose in the variety of uses but tight on design and character of the structures.

There are also recognizable pieces to the new code, such as neighborhood plans, local historic districts and neighborhood conservation combined districts, all aimed at preserving existing neighborhood character.

Jim Duncan, chairman of the Code Advisory Group, a 15-member ad-hoc committee responsible for engaging the public about CodeNEXT, called the completed first draft a “Herculean effort.” However, although there has been general praise over the work needed to get the document out to the public, decision-makers and residents alike said they are still sifting through the 1,100-plus-page document.

“Right now our focus is looking at the tools in the code that we can use to continue with the character of the neighborhoods we have today,” Austin Neighborhoods Council President David King said. He said the neighborhoods are looking for the inevitable growth in Austin to be managed in a way that “respects neighborhood self-determination,” which he defines as the neighborhood’s ability to determine what it looks like from top to bottom.

Through July, the focus will be on public outreach. The city will be hosting through March a variety of discussions with residents within their council districts. Detailed presentations about the contents of the draft will be followed by more focused discussions about the code’s five major themes: process and procedures, community character, environment, mobility and affordability.

The CodeNEXT website features a 10-minute online survey in which residents can provide feedback on whether the draft meets the priorities laid out by Imagine Austin, the city’s comprehensive plan. The actual code also features a comment tool, which allows its readers to provide line-by-line comments. At the end of the process all of the comments will be made available to the public with an explanation of how city staff addressed each concern.

The code’s architects have made it clear that this first draft is only a planning toolbox and said with only the text available, and the maps not due until April 18, residents will soon get a clearer picture of how these new planning tools will affect their streets.