Justin Jacobson
City Council, District 3
Yes I will support revising the code to provide and allow for predictability and deep affordability. The failure of our most recent effort is disproportionately owed to the process undertaken, mainly in that council was absent in its vita leadership role. City Manager Cronk undoubtedly will be able to make workable recommendations for a new process, but that will do little to regain the trust of many Austinites. What we need is for council to show they have more skin in the game by making the framework for creating a new code. The buck stops with council not at the feet of contractors, city staff, or past councils. They have all the data and records from CodeNext, the ability to bring important constituencies together, and they have an obligation to make this work as efficiently as possible if they’re committed to solving this problem. We are not lacking policy proposals in regards to land use development. What we are lacking is a means for implementing them with greater consensus, fuller inclusion of opinions, more thoughtful debate, and accountability measures.