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With Council’s decision to end CodeNEXT, how do you envision moving forward to update Austin’s land development code?

Justin Jacobson

City Council, District 3

We have to get stakeholders back to the table in a good faith effort to get a rewrite done. Too many council members did not heed calls to change the process of CodeNEXT and value the input of all sides of the debate. By the third rewrite of the draft, much was missing to assuage the fears of long time and marginalized residents. They had lost a large stake of ownership in the successful outcome of it. The council also needs to work towards drafting a better framework for how to make an attempt at another rewrite, not leaving it up to the city manager. Council needs to have more skin in the game and not chalk up another failure to consultants or unelected city staff. We need to find new ways to better engage with citizens and better incorporate their feedback and concerns. It may also prove helpful that we have to separate process for making a zoning map and another making the code rules.