Among the many factors blamed for Austin’s affordability crisis are the city’s notoriously complicated development regulations. The development review process is so cumbersome, critics say, that builders have to hire agents to get their permits approved, creating a cost that is invariably passed on to those purchasing or renting the housing that gets built. For […]
Zucker Report
The final analysis of the Planning and Development Review was released in May 2015. In it were numerous suggestions for the improvement of the city’s planning and permitting operations, and the release of the report sparked quick changes, and led to the direct dissolution of the department into two separate departments: Planning and Zoning and Development Services.
Posted inCity Hall
Poll shows progress at Development Services
When Rodney Gonzales took over the Development Services Department in April 2015, the Zucker Report had reported customer survey results showing that 82 percent of respondents felt that the city’s development review and plan check processes were unnecessarily cumbersome or complex. In addition, the report said that 81 percent of customers felt that if the processing […]
Posted inDevelopment
City mulls planning review time fix
Changes to the way the city processes development applications sailed through the Planning Commission last week, and the city hopes that the changes will effect a similar swiftness in its Development Services Department. Donna Galati, who is with the Development Services Department, said the changes are part of a larger effort to streamline development review […]
Posted inCity Hall
Development Services move planned
When the Zucker Report came out in 2015, it offered a scathing analysis of the city’s planning and development review functions and compared Austin’s development and permitting processes unfavorably to many other cities, including San Antonio. One of the report’s recommendations was to move employees associated with the development and permitting process from One Texas […]
Posted inAustin
2015: An Austin Monitor review
In 2015 the shift to single-member districts was finally realized, leading to big changes at City Hall. Now, almost a year later, the Austin Monitor is taking a look back at the past 12 months from our admittedly selective point of view. 10-1 takes the dais In terms of local politics, there was no bigger […]
Posted inDevelopment
Builders hope city fee hikes will improve service
Homebuilders who were not paying attention during September’s city budget deliberations might have been surprised to learn that the “volume builder submittal fee” for construction of a single-family home or duplex, which has cost $29 per home since 2007, shot up to $190 on Oct. 1. That particular fee applies whenever a builder sets out […]
Posted inDevelopment
City staff fixes plan review backlog, looks ahead
When it comes to planning and development, city staff has a lot on its plate in the foreseeable future. It no longer has to worry, though, about a plan review backlog that began to pile up earlier this year. Development Services Department Acting Director J. Rodney Gonzales made the announcement at a City Council work […]
Posted inBudget
City planning departments talk budgets
As the city’s budget process gears up, each department is making its way to City Council with its budget for the upcoming year. And in the wake of the Zucker Report, eyes are on what was once the Planning and Development Review Department. Planning and Zoning Director Greg Guernsey and Development Services Director Rodney Gonzales […]
Posted inDevelopment
City puts a price tag on planning backlog fix
Austin is looking at solutions to fix its plan review backlog, but the fix is going to cost the city. Since the publication of the Zucker Report draft, the Development Services Department has worked to create strategies to eliminate the backlog. According to a memo from Planning and Zoning Department Director Greg Guernsey and Development […]
Posted inCity Hall, Development, Land Development Code
City works to build trust in wake of Zucker Report
On Wednesday, Austinites had a chance to address the Zucker Report publicly for the first time. Developers, neighborhood advocates and other stakeholders offered their feedback on the report and the development process in two meetings, and heard from Zucker Systems President Paul Zucker about his analysis. Though most who spoke did so to reiterate their […]
Posted inAustin, City Council, Development, Land Development Code, Zoning
Adler promises to change building permit process
Speaking to a receptive audience at the Real Estate Council of Austin on Wednesday, Mayor Steve Adler said he and his colleagues intend to make sure that they fix problems in the city’s development and permitting process sooner rather than later. In response to the highly critical Zucker Report on the city’s slow, complicated and […]
Posted inCity Hall
Ott addresses Zucker Report in city memo
The city released a draft copy of the Zucker Report last week amid growing curiosity about what it contained. This week, the aftershocks began. Zucker Systems analyzed the city’s Planning and Development Review Department last year, and in its 700-plus-page report, recommended 464 changes to current practices. Of those, the report designated 121 as high […]