Today in CodeNEXT

Last week was a busy week in CodeNEXT. City Council met twice to hear public testimony on the Land Development Code rewrite, with a much larger turnout on Saturday, when a packed house convened to debate the pros and cons of the new code. This week, City Council starts its deliberations in earnest. A post from Mayor Steve Adler on the City Council Message Board lays out the ambitious plan for Tuesday – where discussion is expected to run from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Mayor Steve Adler hopes to “work collectively to find opportunities for consensus.” Meanwhile, in non-consensus news, as expected, the authors of the CodeNEXT petition have filed a lawsuit against the city over Council’s decision not to place the issue on the ballot. Nelson Linder, Susana Almanza, Jane Rivera, Ph.D., Gilbert Rivera, Michael Hebert, Jeff Jack, Mary Ingle and D. Lauren Ross, Ph.D., filed the suit on Friday. It can be read in its entirety here. The suit says that the petition, once validated, “triggered a ministerial duty on the City Council to take one of two steps: either adopt as law the petition initiative as written within 10 days or place the petition on the ballot for the next allowable election” and asks for a ruling on that matter. The plaintiffs have also asked for an expedited hearing in order for it to be considered in time to put the petition on the November ballot.