In Austin, building a business or developing a new residential project can be more complicated than meets the eye, said Southwest Austinite Robin Wurzel, who is in the process of moving three businesses to a new site.

Those who wish to build must obtain permits and meet requirements outlined in city codes and policies—one of which is the land development code, which the city established in 1988 and is updating now as part of a process called CodeNEXT. [polldaddy poll=9235102]

As part of CodeNEXT, in October and November the city of Austin hosted seven Community Walks including one in an area surrounding the intersection of Manchaca Road and Slaughter Lane. The walks led up to the CodeNEXT Sound Check event, at which technical writers of the city’s land development code, including consultants and city staff, collaborated and sought additional input from residents.

For Wurzel, the process of getting site plans approved took nearly two years because of delays, she said. Wurzel held a ground breaking ceremony Dec. 4 for Freedom Park, a 6-acre property off of South First Street for the three companies—general contracting company Wurzel Builders, demolition firm Southern Demolition and local company 1st Plumbing and AC. She said the permitting process is difficult for small-business owners.

“It was very frustrating,” she said. “… There was a point where I said I would never, ever do this again. And maybe I never will, but hopefully it will get better for other people.”

Reimagining Austin

The land development code maps out the rules and processes that regulate where and what type of development may occur, and the document has been amended hundreds of times. Officials say the code must be updated in order to achieve the goals set forth in the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan, a vision for the city that Austin City Council adopted in June 2012 to direct Austin’s growth and redevelopment for the next 30 years. Imagine Austin outlines goals for purposes such as land use, transportation, housing and neighborhoods, and city facilities and services.

Paul DiGiuseppe, principal planner with the city of Austin Planning and Zoning Department, said the purpose of the Community Walks was to get feedback from the public about how they are experiencing designated focus areas, which include the Manchaca/Slaughter area.

“One of the things we’re trying to achieve with CodeNEXT is identifying the DNA of a neighborhood—what makes it what it is,” he said.

The CodeNEXT team is in the process of drafting development standards, which could affect issues such as how far buildings should be from the street and where duplexes and other housing types are allowed to locate, he said.

CodeNEXT Project Manager Jim Robertson said residents could expect to see a draft of the code revisions by fall 2016.

CodeNEXT lead consultant Opticos Design Inc. is categorizing the different zoning areas in Austin using a rural-to-urban transect system.[/caption]

Examining Southwest Austin

Similar to other parts of Southwest Austin, the Manchaca/Slaughter area is suburban in nature, and much of the parking is situated in front of businesses, DiGiuseppe said.

“It’s really meant to be accessed by car, and we will experience firsthand how it is to walk it,” he said before the Community Walk in that focus area.

Insights provided during the walk included that cars move too quickly at the intersection as well as that the area could be a hub of activity for neighborhoods if it were safer. Feedback has been passed along to the city’s consultant team, DiGiuseppe said.

Southwest Austin resident Connie Lane attended a Sound Check event in November. Lane bought a house 25 years ago in the Southern Oaks neighborhood and said her area recently developed its neighborhood plan, which designated Stassney Lane and Manchaca Road as a civic center.

“I would love to see that developed into something with a real community feel,” she said.

Lane said she is interested in how CodeNEXT can influence development and aesthetics and added she would like to see more local businesses move to the area.

“It’s an exciting time and exciting to think about the changes that could happen. There are certainly also the problems that could happen if we get too much of the density that our streets can’t handle because we don’t have sidewalks,” she said.

Connectivity for pedestrians is a priority for Southwest Austin resident Nancy Crowther, who uses a wheelchair and serves on the city’s Vision Zero task force, which aims to eliminate pedestrian deaths in Austin.

“A sidewalk might have a crack in it [and] nobody thinks anything of it until you hit it with the front end of a wheelchair,” she said.

She said she hopes adding infrastructure for accessibility is something the CodeNEXT effort can address.

“We are wanting to have more of a community-based layout [for neighborhoods], and you don’t want to have to go too far to get groceries,” she said.

The area surrounding the intersection of Manchaca Road and Slaughter Lane is among the test areas the city of Austin is examining as part of its CodeNEXT process.[/caption]

Affordability and housing

The city is rolling out some draft standards based on input the team has received during the past two years, said Matt Lewis, city of Austin assistant director of planning and zoning.

“What we’re looking at is the reorganization of development patterns to help foster Imagine Austin and help implement the goals of that plan. ... This will impact how Austin looks, feels and functions,”  he said.

Staffers are analyzing new housing types and tools that could establish transition zones and increase density by shrinking lot sizes and allowing more types of housing, Lewis said.

“When we start rezoning the parcels, that’s where the community input is going to be really important and where we really have to be bold to be able to implement the comprehensive master plan,” he said Nov. 18.

He said the CodeNEXT team will start testing housing types and seeking community feedback in the test areas.

Some residents at a Nov. 18 Sound Check event said allowing duplexes or fourplexes to be built on lots zoned for single-family residences could be an opportunity, while others did not want to see such zoning changes.

Affordability must also be part of the conversation, Lewis added, noting some of Austin’s population is being displaced to neighboring cities such as Elgin, Round Rock and Hutto.

For the car-oriented, suburban areas of Austin farther from the city center, the existing code—which regulates land based on its use, creating family residence, limited office and neighborhood commercial zones among others—will not change much, said Dan Parolek, principal of Opticos Design Inc., the lead consultant for CodeNEXT.

But for walkable, urban areas, the city should embrace form-based zoning, a more nuanced method that pays particular attention to how buildings relate to streetscapes and the physical form and scale of the buildings, rather than their uses, Parolek said at a Nov. 17 Sound Check event.

“Different neighborhoods require different solutions and different rules,” he said. “Use is still regulated. ...It’s just not the foundation for the code.”

A form-based code would categorize different parts of the city and allow different types of commercial and housing options based on how rural or urban the area is, Parolek said.

The combination of conventional and form-based zoning will create a hybrid code for the city, he said.

One of the intents of using a form-based code is to encourage developers to exchange one or two larger residential units for three or four smaller units on the same lot, Parolek said.

Use categories in a form-based code would be more general than the existing code, which is specific in its categorization of uses, Parolek said. Most of the neighborhood and urban zones would accommodate accessory dwelling units, he added.

Austin city staffers and Opticos Design Inc. consultants are in the process of drafting a new land development code. A final draft is expected to be ready for City Council approval by January 2017.[/caption]

Thoroughfare network

The new code will take into consideration more than buildings, Parolek said. The function of streets surrounding the buildings, including sidewalks, on-street parking and bike lanes, will be included in a new Street Network Plan, or SNP, being developed in conjunction with CodeNEXT.

City engineer Scott Gross said the current code allows breakages in sidewalks and bicyclists on roads intended for only cars. The SNP will zone streets according to how heavily the street is used by trucks, cars, pedestrians and bicyclists, he said. The new plan will implement the mobility portion of Imagine Austin by encouraging streets that support neighborhood character and make the development process more efficient and predictable, Gross said.

Tackling tough issues as part of CodeNEXT now may make the job harder for those in the Planning and Zoning Department, according to Greg Guernsey, the department’s director.

“As we get closer to [finishing] CodeNEXT, it becomes harder to anticipate those changes,” Guernsey said. “If [City Council] were to stop making changes today that would be fine with me because it would make our job easier. … But they have constituents and they have priorities.”

Lewis said CodeNEXT will have to be evaluated and continually updated in the future.

“This not an overnight transformation. … It sets the new framework for how we’re going to develop as a [city in the] future.”

Manchaca Road/Slaughter Lane

As part of the CodeNEXT process, the project team is studying eight focus areas in Austin, including the area surrounding the intersection of Manchaca Road and Slaughter Lane.

The project team held a Community Walk through that area in November and has been seeking community input on potential changes.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Curington and Kara Nuzback