Austin Makes More Forward Progress on Land Use Reform

The most effective way for Austin to address housing un-affordability, climate change, and traffic safety, is to allow more housing within walking distance of high quality transit in the city. An overall increase in the supply of housing in the city will relieve upward price pressure. Denser housing near transit will allow for more people to live healthy, low-carbon lifestyles, …

Sustainable urbanism under attack in Austin. Environmentalists: Make your voice heard.

Austin city council has worked for many years to co-create a vision with various communities and stakeholders to allow a new dense, mixed-use, mixed-income development along the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, including the former site of the Austin-American Statesman, currently a nondescript building surrounded by parking lots. This site is but one piece of the larger South Central …

Can Austin Build on Recent Land Use Wins to Be a More Affordable, Sustainable City?

The City of Austin Planning Commission is planning to form a working group to explore small-scale reforms to Austin’s outdated and overly restrictive Land Development Code. The last attempt to totally overhaul the code, named CodeNEXT, was dismantled by an unfortunate state law which gives a minority of homeowners – who are themselves a minority of the residents of the …