Austin City Council Shutters Controversial CodeNext Initiative

AUSTIN, TX — It's official: CodeNext is dead.

Austin City Council members on Thursday voted unanimously to shutter the ambitious land development code rewrite for which more than $8 million has been spent for consultants' work. The ambitious code rewrite that's been years in the making ostensibly was implemented to address myriad housing and mobility issues — from affordability and density to gentrification and traffic woes.

But critics of the ambitious plan are now legion, with the plan yielding a divisive touchstone for debate rather than the galvanizing initiative city leaders once envisioned. Instead of embracing CodeNext as a potential fix to urban woes, critics — particularly longtime residents already feeling the corrosive effects of gentrification with its attendant increased property values bolstering their tax bills — viewed the plan with considerable suspicion.

Related story: Austin Mayor Suggests Scrapping Controversial CodeNext

To many, the plan was seen as catering to the influx of new residents and business owners rather than genuine blueprint panacea to the gentrification-fueled issues.

Ahead of Thursday's city council meeting, Mayor Steve Adler had already telegraphed his desire to scrapping the entire thing. In a message on the municipal bulletin board last week, Adler conveyed his hope for something of a do-over, with plans to seek guidance from the city manager toward that end.

This is a developing story. Patch will update as more details are known.

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