CodeNEXT Draft 3.0 Is Out

CodeNEXT 3.0 is here. After five and a half years, $8 million spent, and an inordinate amount of speed bumps and hold-ups, the third and final draft of the city’s land development code rewrite was released this evening at City Hall.

Sort through the code's language here. And check out the proposed maps here There's a whole slew of ways you can provide feedback on the draft; just go to CodeNEXT's official page on the city website for details on those options.

Interim Assistant City Manager Joe Pantalion held a press conference at 5pm to announce the release, now referred to as a "staff policy recommendation.” Outside the media room, city staff hosted an open house to share the updated draft with residents.

Today’s release has been a long time coming. The most recent setback came in mid-November, when Pantalion announced that staff had chosen to push the final draft’s release from Nov. 28 to February. (Staff said they needed more time to appropriately address the thousands of public comments and pieces of stakeholder feedback.) City Council had originally planned to vote on the land use overhaul’s final language in April. An updated timeline has yet to be mapped out, but tensions between the city’s land use commissions are forming over the debate of how much is enough time. Those on the Zoning & Platting Commission would prefer to hold off on setting dates until they’re acquainted with the third draft, while their colleagues on the Planning Commission seem more comfortable in general with setting a few dates to keep the project on track. That discussion will likely continue tomorrow evening during the commissions’ joint meeting, where staff and code consultants will present on draft three.

While today’s release may be the final draft of CodeNEXT – there will not be a fourth draft (thank goodness!), staff confirmed last week – it’s highly unlikely that Council will choose to vote on version 3.0 as is. Between now and spring, both land use commissions will continue to receive staff and consultant briefings as well as hear from the public before finalizing their separate recommendations for Council. Several other commissions, including the Environmental Commission, and additional stakeholder groups will also submit draft recommendations for Council to consider. As CodeNEXT spokesperson Alina Carnahan explains it, the staff policy recommendation will be the document from which everyone works. “There will be amendments from staff, recommendations from PC and ZAP, and changes from Council incorporated into the document as we move through the process,” she said.

We'll have more in this week's issue.