Watson Wire: Notice Anything?

I’ve really come to dread Friday afternoons. For some reason, every Friday at about 3:00  — and you can set your clock by it — the proverbial stuff hits the fan. It’s like people have waited all week to break whatever bad news they have for me.

And, yeah, I’ve been known to whine about it — loudly.

But I do appreciate getting the heads-up when something big is coming. Being notified, even about something I don’t like or disagree with, allows me to address it, give input, maybe even fix it.

The same applies to how the city government — the Mayor and Council —should give notice to the public on big issues.

This issue is coming into play now because we will soon be taking up some pretty big changes to the Land Development Code (LDC) as part of our determined efforts to address Austin’s housing affordability emergency. And getting the public notice process right really matters, since that was one of the issues that sunk the LDC rewrite known as CodeNext (both legally and as a matter of just good government).

Even before I was back in the mayor’s office, I really disliked and disagreed with how the City handled CodeNext. The City made the decision not to provide notice in as broad a way as possible about what was happening and what CodeNext could do all across the city. People sued the City and Austin lost the suit, along with a lot of credibility. And from a housing policy perspective, we lost precious time, lots and lots of time.

Doing It Differently

The Council members and I are committed to getting more housing in Austin. We adopted several housing-related resolutions a few months ago directing the City Manager to come back with full ordinances for Council consideration. The approach has been to focus on individual initiatives that address specific needs or barriers, including LDC changes necessary to bring about positive results.

These are big changes, and some folks have legitimate concerns about how these changes will affect their lives and affect Austin now and in the future. At times, the land use debate in Austin has been bitterly divided and often feels as partisan as Washington, D.C. It may not be partisan in the sense of Republicans and Democrats, but it’s divided into sides with name calling, an unwillingness to talk with each other and, using tools like public notice (or the lack of it) to gain an advantage.

It doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t have to be that you’re either 1) for housing and don’t care about neighborhoods; or 2) for protecting neighborhoods and opposed to things that could get us more housing. I think a lot (dare I say, most?) of Austinites sit somewhere in the middle between those two poles, which can have some very passionate people advocating. And, yeah, I’m guessing we’re not going to get perfect, pure results. We’re not going to meet everyone’s concept of perfection. Trying to fairly and responsibly address big issues impacting lots of people is rarely, if ever, utopian.

The hope is that we start from a place where people don't feel left out or messed around because the process is distorted. Of course, the process will also not be perfect.  But I believe that the public knowing what’s happening and having a shot at good public feedback will help us make these policies better for everyone. To get that feedback, I want robust and clear public notice of any proposed LDC change. Not just the minimum that can be legally achieved, but more than the law requires. And we should consider alternative notice mechanisms, too, so we can maybe reach more folks.

The first step in this will likely be to have a joint meeting of the Austin City Council and the Planning Commission on certain proposals. This will give us at least three times for public comment: the joint meeting, a separate Planning Commission meeting and a separate Council meeting. On September 21, the Austin City Council will vote on whether we should have a joint meeting as well as the public notification process.

More communication about what’s going on with LDC changes than is customary — maybe even more than is necessary — will only help this process as we address a formidable challenge. Frankly, greater communication is the least we should do to ensure a credible community discussion of an issue that will define Austin’s future.

Have a great weekend. As for me, well, it’s Friday and 3:00 is almost here. I’m headed to turn on the fan.