Friends of Hyde Park in the Austin Business Journal.
“Earlier this month, the neighborhood association Friends of Hyde Park issued a scathing criticism of the proposed code rewrite and its membership voted to not support the draft document.”
“Friends of Hyde Park, in its May 10 resolution, focused its critique of CodeNEXT on the Neighborhood Conservation Combining Districts, or NCCD, that is carried forward under the proposed code. Approved in 2002, the NCCD places restrictions on development in the Hyde Park neighborhood. Under CodeNEXT’s draft language, this would restrict building heights along Guadalupe Street, Red River Street and other major corridors that run through Hyde Park, contrary to CodeNEXT’s stated goal of adding density along those corridors. It would also preserve a 5,750-foot minimum lot size for the entire neighborhood and require an 8,000 square-foot lot of any residence with more than 2 units, among other restrictions.”
“The current land development code, specifically the Hyde Park NCCDs that have some of the most restrictive zoning rules in Austin, may be one of the primary causes for why we are losing our more affordable housing stock in Hyde Park, property taxes are increasing for homeowners, and rents increasing for renters,” reads the Friends of Hyde Park resolution. “The city of Austin would have to carry over and maintain the old land development code in order to keep NCCDs after the passage of CodeNEXT, meaning the city of Austin would be maintaining and operating under two completely different land development codes at the same time. Property owners in NCCD neighborhoods would have complex NCCDs to navigate when making additions onto their homes as well as trying to determine what layers of city code that would apply.”
“It all boils down to the NCCD. It basically exempts Hyde Park from CodeNEXT,” said Pete Gilcrease, president of Friends of Hyde Park. “Now city staff will have to run two parallel codes at the same time for Hyde Park.”