Listening to the Community

CodeNEXT, an Imagine Austin initiative to revise Austin’s land development code, released a Listening to the Community Report.

The CodeNEXT team went to Austin residents to get a better understanding of views on the current land development code and the types of places it helps create. Participants included residents, community and professional organizations, and City of Austin departments who use the code.

Resident feedback came in the forms of public listening sessions, small group meetings, online surveys and discussions, interviews, and community-submitted case studies and issue papers. Comments pointed to recurring themes such as affordability, transportation, environment/open space and neighborhood character.

“The Listening Report describes the many efforts in collecting ideas and concerns from residents, but very importantly goes further in honestly explaining the limitations of the report. We need to talk more to young people, to renters, and to persons from more diverse socio-economic backgrounds,” said Dave Sullivan, who chairs the CodeNEXT Advisory Group. “We will continue listening to the community through the completion of this project.”