During a special called City Council meeting Wednesday, city of Austin staff introduced a timeline for the implementation of CodeNEXT, the city’s planned overhaul of its land development code. Wednesday’s joint meeting between Austin City Council, city staff and the Citizens Advisory Group was also attended by chairs of the Planning Commission and Zoning and Platting Commission. If all goes according to the timeline, the public will have a tangible first draft of the code by Jan. 30, and City Council will adopt the final version of the code in April 2018—with much deliberation between now and then. Austin City Mayor Steve Adler addressed the need to get the process done correctly. “I’m not sure there is anything this city does next year that is more important than this work and getting this code done,” Adler said. “We don’t have any choice but to get this done and get this done well.” CodeNEXT has been in the works for three years since the city announced its strategic plan for the future of the city, Imagine Austin. Much of the hands-on work thus far has been done by the 18-member CAG in listening to residential input from across the city and taking recommendations and concerns. Wednesday’s meeting focused on providing a timeline for the project moving forward to provided all stakeholders a more detailed list of expectations. The timeline was divided into four phases: pre-draft phase, public review draft phase, commission draft phase and, finally, the adoption process. Greg Guernsey, director of Austin’s Planning and Zoning Department, said the city will release the first public draft of the land development code Jan. 30 that will only include the code’s text and unofficial maps to illustrate how the code would affect different areas of the city. On April 18, the city plans to release the first official draft of the new zoning maps. During this time, Guernsey said the city staff will be focused on getting the community and the city government oriented with the new maps through work sessions and community meetings. The second CodeNEXT draft is due by August 2017 and will go to the Planning Commission and Zoning and Platting Commission for review and recommendations. The community will be able to participate in public hearings at both meetings. By December, City Council will host its first public reading of the CodeNEXT draft, followed by a second reading in March 2018. Should the city stick to the general timeline, Austin will have a new land development code by April 2018. While Wednesday provided the first detailed look at the city’s expectations of the code implementation process, stakeholders at the meeting asked for more detail to be included, mainly regarding how, when and where the community will be able to participate in the process. Other stakeholders said it was necessary for the city to provide a detailed look at exactly how and why the code has changed in each section. The consensus of groups at the meeting was that CodeNEXT has been a confusing and dense topic, and the city needs to make sure it is clearly laying the steps for all stakeholders so no one and nothing gets left behind. Guernsey said the city plans to come back with a more detailed timeline in January.