Austin's neighborhood planning processes are "inequitable, lack transparency and may constitute a risk to fair housing choice," according to an audit recently conducted by the city. The audit results, which were presented Monday to the City Council Audit and Finance Committee, showed the majority of the city's 30 neighborhood plans are outdated, and that its so-called contact teams lack neighborhood participation, are inaccessible to neighborhood stakeholders and do not line up with Imagine Austin, the city's comprehensive plan. The creation of neighborhood plans began in 1997 during an at-large City Council system. In 1999, the city set a goal of completing 60 planning areas in less than six years, but auditors said the time it takes to develop and adopt a neighborhood plan has slowed over time. Most recently, it has taken almost six years for plans to be completed. At this pace, the audit showed it would take 81 years to complete neighborhood plans for the entire city. "As the city annexes more areas and continues to grow in neighborhoods not covered by existing plans, the relative coverage of neighborhood plans will decline," auditors wrote.
Creation of a neighborhood plan
Under the existing process, the Planning and Zoning Department forms a neighborhood contact team consisting of area volunteer advocates following City Council's adoption of the neighborhood plan. The contact team's job is to work with city staff to implement plan recommendations, review and initiate plan amendments, serve as community points of contact, and work on behalf of other neighborhood stakeholders. Finally, the volunteers vote to adopt bylaws and then operate independently.
Finding 1: The city's neighborhood planning efforts are inequitable and lack participation
The audit said the city's neighborhood planning process doesn't have enough citizen participation, nor does it have a minimum participation threshold for plan approvals. In addition, two neighborhood plans and parts of a third don't have an associated contact team. As of 2015, the neighborhood plans cover 53 neighborhood areas—26 percent of the city—primarily in the urban core, according to the Office of the City Auditor. The report also showed voters were not reflective of neighbor demographics, with renters disproportionately underrepresented. For example, only 19 people participated in the vote of one neighborhood plan that covers an area of nearly 13,000 residents. In addition, some of the plans use demographics from the 1990 census and have not been updated since the plans' creations.
Finding 2: Neighborhood plan contact teams make it hard for the public to engage and make decisions
Some neighborhood plans do not have contact teams, the audit showed. Eighteen out of the 31 neighborhoods with contact teams had no way of knowing about contact team meetings, and only five out of the 31 neighborhoods provided complete information about upcoming contact team meetings. In addition, contact information for the teams was lacking, inaccurate or outdated, the audit found. Many of the contact teams' bylaws made citizen voting difficult, according to the report. The audit listed barriers such as requiring residents to live in the neighborhood for a minimum amount of time, requiring voters be approved by an executive committee and requiring memberships in separate neighborhood organizations—some of which require dues be paid. The auditors said some contact team bylaws also deviated from the Planning and Zoning Department's standard template and lacked items such as rules on conflicts of interest and requirements for recording meetings. The report also found contact team definitions were inconsistent across the 30 plans. The audit found only one of the 31 neighborhood contact teams had representatives from every member category described in the city's Land Development Code.
