In 2012, the City Council in Austin, Texas, adopted Imagine Austin. The 30-year comprehensive plan aims to create a vibrant, more livable, and connected city through safe, affordable, and well-maintained neighborhoods; a network of parks and open space; environmental responsibility and conservation; cost-effective public transportation; and a network of community partnerships to support public education.
To further the goals laid out in Imagine Austin, the city established eight priority programs, including “development regulations and processes to promote a compact and connected city.” Austin’s Land Development Code determines how land can be used throughout the city, and what, where, and how much can be built, but written more than 30 years ago, the current code has become obsolete. The city needs a new code to achieve its development goals and ensure its long-term sustainability.
Through a collaborative effort called CodeNext, Austin residents, businesses, and civic institutions will work together to rewrite the city’s Land Development Code. Nationally recognized as an expert in Form-Based Coding and citywide hybrid codes, Opticos will lead a team of national and local consultants that will aid the Code Advisory Group in this process.
The advisory group and consultant team, which will include Peter Park, former Planning Director of Denver, will document and assess Austin’s neighborhoods to further understand what makes them unique, and how they can be improved for the benefit of the community as a whole. Opticos’s Dan Parolek and John Miki are heading to Austin Sept. 23 – 25 to attend three listening sessions hosted by the Code Advisory Group. The goal of the sessions is to better understand community values and concerns. The video below was created to launch the event.
Click here for times and locations of the first CodeNext listening sessions, or call 512.974.1236 or email darrick.nicholas@austintexas.gov for more information.
Featured image courtesy of Imagine Austin. Like this article? How about these: