From: Gretchen Flatau, HNA President
May 7, 2017
Dear Neighbors,
We had a well-attended meeting of the Heritage Neighborhood Association this past Monday. Our focus for the meeting was to learn more about CodeNEXT and what its impact on Heritage might be. These are some of the issues we discussed:
· While the city has been working on this for a while the timeline for citizen input is short. The District 9 Meeting hosted by Kathy Tovo to review the plan is June 3rd and comments are due shortly after that. In fact, the Central Austin Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee (CANPAC) has formerly requested that citizens and neighborhood groups be given more time to review CodeNEXT.
· While we were promised a simpler, single code, the current proposal keeps the old code for some areas and adds two more types of development codes—one for the more urban areas of town (Transect Zones) and a different code for the suburb areas (use-based zoning). This is not simpler.
· The proposed transect zone for Heritage (T4N.SS) is replacing both single and multifamily zoning in the interior of the neighborhood and T4MS is proposed for Guadalupe and Lamar. The T4N.SS zoning shortens our front setbacks from 25′ to 10′ and allows the “multiplex” use category effectively changing every single family zoned property to multifamily. The proposed T4MS category for Guadalupe and Lamar prohibits residential uses (no new housing along Guadalupe, does that make sense?).
· The plan for Heritage does not conform to the neighborhood plan that we are currently operating under. The new plan greatly increases density, allows for smaller setbacks from the street and reduces the amount of parking required in new development.
· This proposed code will increase the allowed density in the middle of the neighborhood and encourage demolition of existing housing for redevelopment.
Here are ways you can learn more and let the city know how you feel about this code:
1. Attend the District 9 CodeNEXT Mapping Meeting hosted Mayor Pro Tem and District 9 Councilmember, Kathie Tovo, at City Hall on June 3rd, 10am to Noon.
2. You can post comments online about the CodeNEXT text: the deadline is June 6th; go to https://codenext.civicomment.org.
3. You can post comments online about the CodeNEXT maps: the deadline is July 7th, go to https://codenext.engagingplans.org/codenext-comparison-map .
4. Take the City survey to evaluate whether the draft code improves the 10 major issues the City has identified. Go to https://austinenergy.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6Lr5DqDVxkiuwPX .
5. Contact Gretchen Flatau at gflatau@austin.rr.com or the Heritage NA at HeritageNA@gmail.com to get more information on getting involved in making sure Heritage continues to be a good neighborhood for everyone.
Sincerely,
Gretchen Flatau
President, Heritage Neighborhood Association
heritageaustin.org 