Deputy City Manager Mike Etienne said the city’s current UDC was adopted in 2005 and does not align with the city’s comprehensive plan, which was adopted in 2023 and serves as a guiding document for where and how the city wants to grow, according to its website.
Two-minute impact
A UDC acts as a menu of regulations that shape future construction procedures in the city, said Chance Sparks, a principal with Freese and Nichols, Inc., which received the contract. Freese and Nichols will rewrite the code over the next roughly 15 months, he said.
The new code will have to consider a much larger population than the previous code did. When the current code was written, about 1,500 people lived in Liberty Hill, Sparks said. Now, the city has a population of over 10,000, according to Opportunity Austin.
“It’s a really exciting time,” Sparks said. “[Liberty Hill has] been through a lot of changes, transportation changes, changes to your economy, things like that.”
What they’re saying
Sparks said Freese and Nichols puts a large focus on user experience, noting the company aims to produce codes that are easy to use and easy to understand.
“When I talk about an easy code, it doesn’t mean it’s a lax code. It means it’s a clear code. It communicates well. There’s not confusion to it,” he said.
What else?
According to agenda documents, there is $200,000 in the 2024-25 budget dedicated to a UDC rewrite.
“The portion we need this year is in the current budget. The rest of it we will have to adopt in the next budget cycle, but because it’s going to span across those years, we’re ok with that,” Council Member Diane Williams said.
