CodeNext appears all but dead after more than half of the Austin City Council has gone on record in favor of scrapping the city’s $8 million rewrite to the city’s land development code. The possibility of halting CodeNext was first proposed by Mayor Steve Adler on Wednesday. Since the mayor posted online suggesting ceasing CodeNext, council members Ann Kitchen, Delia Garza, Greg Casar, Jimmy Flannigan and Sabino “Pio” Renteria have all come out in favor of halting the CodeNext process. With six council members on record against continuing CodeNext, it appears there would be enough votes to scrap it. Earlier: Austin Mayor Steve Adler suggested Wednesday that the Austin City Council put an end to CodeNext, the controversial rewrite of the city’s land development code. Adler floated the possibility of killing CodeNext on the council’s online message board. “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,” Adler said. Adler made the suggestion just as the City Council was preparing to dive into CodeNext. The council first took up CodeNext in public hearings and work sessions in May and June after the embattled Planning Commission delivered its recommendation on the pending rewrite. It was unclear whether Adler would call for CodeNext to be scrapped completely, but in his 1,500-word post, Adler repeatedly asks for input about halting CodeNext. “The need to revise this land development code is greater than ever before,” Adler said. “Yet, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the CodeNext process, so divisive and poisoned, will not get us to a better place.” CodeNext came about after the City Council approved the 2012 Imagine Austin comprehensive plan. CodeNext aimed to tackle many of Austin’s most vexing problems, including gentrification, a lack of affordable housing and traffic. Yet the rewrite has been mired in delays and has gone over budget, costing tax payers at least $8 million in fees to contracted consultants. And as successive drafts of the proposed land-use rules and zoning code was released, opposition grew. Adler said both opponents and supporters of CodeNext have used hyperbole and misinformation to push their points of view. “When a longtime resident says with a straight face that CodeNext means every property in their neighborhood will be able to sell alcohol commercially, or a neighborhood listserv warns that most every home in their neighborhood will be demolished and each lot subdivided into 25-foot widths, then something has gone horribly wrong,” Adler said. “But all we need to do is listen to council members (Greg) Casar, (Delia) Garza, and others to know that this is untrue,” Adler continued. “I keep hearing from yet others that the folks opposing CodeNext are all racists intent on keeping people of color out of their neighborhoods. But all we need to do is listen to Mayor Pro Tem (Kathie) Tovo, Council Member (Alison) Alter, and others to know that this, too, is untrue.”

Source: Austin American Statesman