Austin Mayor Suggests Scrapping Controversial CodeNext

AUSTIN, TX — Mayor Steve Adler on Wednesday said city council should consider scrapping CodeNext, an ambitious and controversial revamping of the city's land development code.

The mayor suggested abandoning the code rewrite on the Austin City Council online message board. CodeNext has come under fire by critics who fear further housing displacement and increased density that could result from the CodeNext implementation, among other issues.

"The need to revise this land development code is greater than ever before," Adler wrote. "Yet, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the CodeNEXT process, so divisive and poisoned, will not get us to a better place.We should consider the option: cease the CodeNEXT process and ask the city manager to create a new process that will help us move forward together."

Even while suggesting abandoning the rewrite, Adler insisted the need for code revamping.

"When we look at the difficult issues of displacement and gentrification, the burdens of traffic and increasing lack of affordability, it is not incorrect to point at least one finger at our existing, outdated land development code," Adler wrote. "We must improve on what’s happening now. We can't keep losing long-time residents because they can't afford to stay in their neighborhoods. We can't keep letting our city's floodwaters go inadequately managed, washing away lives and homes and costing our city hundreds of millions of dollars and untold misery for primarily lower-income residents."

But given the divisiveness sparked by CodeNext, it might be time to go back to the drawing table, Adler suggested: "We had been hoping for a process that would bring Austin together and result in a code that would help us solve many of our biggest challenges, however CodeNEXT and the community discussion surrounding it have largely been contentious and marked with misinformation. Preying on the worst fears of Austinites is a near surefire way to kill anything, but we know that that our city’s challenges and the need to re-write our land development code remain."

Read Adler's full message by clicking here.

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>>> Photo of Mayor Steve Adler via City of Austin