CodeNEXT dies on City Council dais

The Austin City Council voted unanimously at its regular meeting to throw out CodeNEXT, a proposed plan to overhaul the city’s land-use code, KUT reported Wednesday.

According to the council’s resolution to scrap the plan, “due to a combination of significant disruptions to the process, CodeNEXT is no longer a suitable mechanism to achieve its stated goals or address the critical challenges currently facing our City.” The resolution directs city manager Spencer Cronk to develop a new process for achieving a land development code that meets the goals of the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan and other adopted precursors to CodeNext planning.

Last week, Austin mayor Steve Adler sounded the death knell of any hope for the plan moving forward on a city message board, citing the “misinformation” he believes has surrounded the conversation about the process as the primary reason it should be scrapped and writing that the CodeNEXT discussion had become “divisive and poisoned.” That post was quickly followed by statements in agreement with Adler from a number of council members and an announcement of a plan to the submit the resolution that was passed Thursday.

The drafting of CodeNEXT has taken more than five years and cost the city about $8.5 million, according to KUT.

• Austin City Council Votes Unanimously To Scrap CodeNEXT [KUT]

• ‘Something Has Gone Horribly Wrong’: Adler Calls For A Reset On CodeNEXT Process [KUT]

• Recoding Austin [Curbed]