Category Archives: Other

Preserve by-right zoning

Oct 30, 2019

Imagine that the zoning code gave the planning director the unfettered right to reduce the density of a project simply because he thought it was too dense. Zoning might allow, say, 300 housing units o ...

Cronk asks City Council to be the decider

Mar 17, 2019

City Manager Spencer Cronk has asked City Council to decide four fundamental policy questions before staff resumes work on the land development code. Cronk did the right thing by putting these questio ...

Owning the land development code

Dec 30, 2018

In retrospect, CodeNEXT failed not because staff produced a bad land development code, but because Council did not instruct it to produce a better one. To be sure, Council did the right thing last sum ...

Capitol View Corridors, illustrated

Dec 05, 2018

The Capitol View Corridors are polarizing. Most Austinites probably believe that CVCs, at least in the abstract, are a reasonable method of preserving views of the Capitol dome while allowing most of ...

Chronicling downtown’s decline

Jan 10, 2018

CityLab had an interesting piece a few weeks ago on Sanborn fire insurance maps. These maps were created by Daniel A. Sanborn beginning in the 1800s to help insurance companies map fire risk ...

Maintaining the status quo

Apr 25, 2017

The CodeNEXT maps are out and, predictably, hand-wringing has ensued. The City released a tool allowing one to compare the old and new zoning side by side. People have begun looking up their neighborh ...

Zoning capacity vs housing supply

Mar 27, 2017

The key number housing number being bandied about these days is 135,000: this is the ten-year housing unit target recommended by Austin’s new strategic housing plan. It includes a mix of market- ...

Testing the transect zones: the Heritage neighborhood

Feb 21, 2017

The Statesman interviewed me and Jim Duncan, a member of the CodeNEXT citizens advisory group and former head of city planning, last week to discuss how we expect the Heritage neighborhood to be ...

Let’s leave setbacks alone, too.

Feb 10, 2017

As with the minimum lot-size changes, CodeNEXT will upend standard setback regulations that have governed SF-3 housing for decades. Current SF-3 regulations require side setbacks of 5′ (15′ ...

Let’s leave shallow lots alone

Feb 09, 2017

CodeNEXT proposes doing some good things (reducing parking requirements!) but also some bad things. Two of those bad things — and they’re very bad — are setting a minimum lot depth f ...

Category Archives: Other

High-end retail in the neighborhood Downtown Dubai

Corporate offices at Boulevard Plaza in the neighborhood Downtown Dubai

Pet-friendly spaces in the neighborhood Downtown Dubai

Educational institutions in the neighborhood Downtown Dubai

Public transportation in the neighborhood Downtown Dubai