Austin City Council seeks to lay out all the policy priorities for city staff today so they can better write up a new Land Development code.
Councilmember Kathie Tovo has a few over arching goals in mind as they kick off the talks this morning, “One priority certainly is to make sure the resulting code is clear consistent and easy to use.”
Like Councilmembers Jimmy Flannigan and Ann Kitchen, Tovo also wants to prioritize the build up of dense housing along major corridors and activity centers. She also wants to protect existing market rate affordable housing, i.e; homes that are designed and built to be affordable without financial assistance from the city, and promote the development of similar homes.
Also on the housing density front, Flannigan explained if the city doesn’t address the growing need of housing, it’ll only make matters worse.
“It’s going to cause the negative effects of sprawl that we see were there is also huge housing demand for new housing in the green field areas and surrounding suburban communities.” But, he continued, “alot of the jobs are still in Austin so those folks are driving on our city streets and not necessarily paying our city taxes.”
Flannigan said this is why he’s in favor of denser housing, like duplexes. The City can better balance its spending on roads, utilities, and public safety with the taxes they collect from a single street.
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