Public Notice: Where’s Our LDC Rewrite?

Portland, Ore., has been in the news a lot recently – beset by protests, riots, shootings, etc. – but somehow in the middle of all that, their City Council managed to find time last month to pass what's been described as "the best low-density zoning reform in U.S. history." Specifically, the Residential Infill Project allows up to four units on virtually every lot in the city, with carefully calibrated unit sizes to encourage affordability and discourage "McMansions."

Our own Council, on the other hand, just sat through yet another executive session, searching for a way to sidestep legal rulings that killed the unpopular CodeNEXT Land Development Code rewrite process – just so they can pass a plan without citizen approval or Council consensus that won't even allow duplexes, let alone corner stores, in many of the city's single-family zones. Nor do they seem inclined to try to improve the process, or to work on the myriad other housing affordability problems that are independent of the LDC.

In that context, it's depressing to see the housing affordability arguments at City Council falling back into the same old pattern, with CMs Flannigan, Garza, and Harper-Madison again voting to require fewer affordable units in new developments while claiming to support housing affordability in principle, and CMs Tovo, Pool, and Kitchen accused of being anti-growth because of their votes for affordability (cf. Plaza Saltillo, The Grove at Shoal Creek ...).

And in a similar vein, the resignation of Plan­ning Commissioners Fayed Kazi and Conor Kenny to start a new endeavor building affordable housing ("Planning Commission Leaders Step Down to Chart Housing Waters") is a good thing: They're talented pros who may well make some serious headway in the field. But though they and others on the PC have spent most of the past decade railing against the current LDC, it's instructive that as they set out to actually create affordable housing, the tools they intend to use are uncontroversial and the policies they identify as obstacles have little to do with the LDC Revision: They're already working on their first project using the Affordability Unlocked ordinance that was passed unanimously last year, and the procedural delays listed at some length here all have to do not with code but with the development review process and department, which Coun­cil has studiously ignored in their fixation on the LDC.

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The Project Connect transit plan will be up for a public vote in November, but related spending starts today, as Council's Item 5 sets aside $23 million to buy property along Airport Boulevard, East Riverside, North and South Lamar, Guadalupe, Slaughter, William Cannon, Burnet, and MLK. See maps of the properties targeted for acquisition (or possible acquisition) as backup in the meeting agenda. The ordinance also specifically waives the City Code's "Relo­ca­tion Bene­fits" requirements for all such acquisitions.

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Amid generally fast-falling rates of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in Central Texas, Austin Public Health's Dr. Mark Escott stressed two major reasons for caution at a briefing on Monday: socializing over Labor Day weekend and schools reopening. He noted that clusters of cases have already been found at four local schools, with 11 of the 25 known cases linked to football strength and conditioning activities. He added that one school has ended workouts, but Austin ISD and other large districts are just beginning official practices this week and are scheduled to play their first games Sept. 25.

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The Texas Democratic Party is holding a "Texas Voter Registration Week," aiming to reach out to 1 million unregistered Texans to help them register to vote in the 2020 election. Surely you're already registered yourself, but if you know anyone who might not be, or if you have questions about voting in this pandemicized climate, see our handy voting feature, or austinchronicle.com/election.

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Trainy McTrainface? Hopefully not. Austin Parks Foundation has announced a contest to name the new train coming to Zilker Park next summer: Submit name ideas now through Sept. 21 at www.austinparks.org/zilker-train, where there's also a coloring sheet you can use to illustrate your suggestion. The top ideas will be announced at APF's Party for the Parks on Sept. 30, when voting will open for the final pick. APF has been tasked with finding an interim replacement for the Zilker Zephyr, which went out of commission last year.

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Hyperlocal news for neighbors of the Chronicle: Residents north of UT have been wondering where the loud outdoor music is coming from; despite the peculiar playlist, that's testing of the new sound system at the football stadium. Expect a very different soundtrack starting Sept. 12... Also, neighbors received notice from the city of a site plan for construction at Hancock Center, where the shuttered Sears store on I-35 seems ripe for a major redevelopment. Could this be it? No, as it turns out, it's for a relatively small eastward expansion of the Hancock H-E-B store.