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What policies and approaches will you advocate to promote neighborhood improvement, and avoid neighborhood protectionism, as Austin changes and grows?

Bobby Levinski

City Council, District 8

We need to better utilize and empower our small area planning (including corridor planning) to get our residents involved in crafting policy to address our community’s goals. We should have metrics for projected growth, on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis, and monitor our success in achieving these goals, so we can make adjustments. I have reviewed neighborhood plans in areas like Vancouver, and they are far beyond us in understanding how to pull those levers. I am very much supportive of infill and density along the corridors that can add to neighborhood character. I supported the proposed preservation bonus in 2015 to allow bigger ADUs, because I thought it was a well-balanced approach to accommodate more residents in an area while also preserving housing stock that was more affordable on a $/sq.ft. basis. As a renter who lives in a duplex, I understand the need for more types of housing, so younger families are able to stay in the City instead of being forced to move the suburbs for their only affordable options.