Category Archives: Planning and Neighborhoods

Planning and Neighborhoods refers to the City’s comprehensive plan, the land development code, development processes, neighborhood planning, noise, zoning, annexations, eminent domain, landmark review, design, mobility as it concerns land use, and related matters.

Mayor Adler’s open letter to AURA

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

 

Dear AURA:

I agree that we need a CodeNext process that does not begin with 97% of the final product already decided, and I would like to thank you for your open letter because it gives me an opportunity to clear up a misconception about what I’ve been saying. It is certainly possible that I have misspoken on this subject to a reporter, but regardless I want to make clear what I have intended to have been saying at the dozens of opportunities over the last few months when I’ve been able to talk about CodeNEXT.

In my State of the City in January, I spoke of the Austin Bargain where we all agree that we will achieve density along the transportation corridors and activity centers where folks want to buy housing but not significantly impact the interiors of neighborhoods. I suggested this compromise to avoid realizing the worst fears of many folks. Yes, we will actually meet our housing supply needs. Yes, we can do this without substantially and materially changing the interiors of our legacy and heritage neighborhoods.  I have suggested that, if we agree to these two propositions, then we will mainly need to focus on the tough work of mapping the transition areas between the higher intensity areas and the single family areas.  I have predicted that those transition areas will be relatively small (maybe 3% to 5%) of the city. This is certainly a great generalization, but it is intended to set a goal and to provide a high level proposed framework. Continue reading →

Progress in permitting reform

permitting progressWe’ve made progress on permitting reform. According to a poll, satisfaction with the Development Services Department — the City department that issues permits and conducts inspections — has increased dramatically since the Zucker Report was released two years ago. In addition, the Austin Monitor reports that Development Services are issuing more than twice as many residential permits as they did two years ago. Continue reading →

“Great Cities Do Big Things” – State of Our City Feb. 16, 2016 Austin, Texas

“Great cities do big things not because they are great. Cities become great because they do big things.”

Thank you, President Fenves. I am grateful for your leadership at the University of Texas and for our growing working relationship and even friendship.

And with the conversations that need to be happening between UT and the City on issues like the development of the Innovation Zone around our new medical school, a replacement arena for the Drum, the future of the MUNY golf course site, as well as expanding opportunities for closer connection between Austin and the incredible intellectual resources of your faculty, there’s a lot for you and me — and the community — to be talking about.

And by the way, I’m grateful to you for skipping the West Virginia game tonight. You get pretty good seats, so I know what kind of sacrifice this is.

President Fenves recounted the story of the Austin Dam. I love that story, because as the Mayor of Austin I’m often asked what the secret sauce is that makes us a magical city and a center for innovation and creativity. Most every other city wishes it could replicate our success. When I attended the climate change talks in Paris, the 100 Resilient Cities meeting in London, the Almedalen Political Rhetoric Festival in Norway, and the traffic control center in Dublin, Ireland, and people found out that I was the Mayor they’d get a big smile on their face and tell me how much they love Austin.

Cities from all over our country and the rest of the world send entire delegations here to troop through our offices in hopes of finding the magic formula written on a white board somewhere.  These leaders from other cities ask me what makes Austin so special. I tell them about Barton Springs and how our commitment to our environment became perhaps our most important asset. I tell them about Willie Nelson and our live music, how by embracing diverse cultures we established an inclusive community where creativity thrives, about a community where it is okay to fail so long as you learn and grow. And I tell them about Michael Dell reinventing the assembly line in his dorm room and how coming up with radical new ideas here doesn’t make you an outcast — it can make you rich and famous.

And then I tell them about the Austin Dam, and how when the dam burst we were set on a path that turned us into a boomtown of the Information Age. The lesson, I tell these visitors from other cities is clear. They need to leave Austin, return to their hometowns, and destroy all their dams and bridges, too.

But some cities just aren’t willing to do the Big Things.

Continue reading after the break.

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Mayor & City Council Kick-Off “Year of Mobility” with Hundreds of Transportation Improvements Citywide

Today the Mayor and City Council kicked off the “Year of Mobility” by announcing that the City and regional partners are coordinating efforts to make progress on hundreds of transportation projects across the city that will ease congestion, make traffic safer, and plan for the future. Announced today are a total of 109 projects not including regular street maintenance, the mobility improvements paid for out of CapMetro funding to be approved today, and other regular projects such as filling potholes, new striping on roads, and maintaining landscaping.

“The City of Austin and our partners in the region are serious about making progress every day on the transportation challenges we all face. Over the next year, you will see progress that moves us closer to our goal of a safe and effective transportation system, where people have choices about how they get around the city,” said Ann Kitchen, Chair of the Council Mobility Committee.

“We’ve got so many shovel-ready projects lined up that we’re going to run out of shovels. We’re going to cut so many ribbons that we’re going to need to find a place to sharpen our giant pair of scissors. It’s getting harder for people to get to work, so people expect us to get to work, and that’s what we’re doing,” said Mayor Steve Adler.

Continue reading →