UPDATED: Legal Teams Lay Out Arguments in Austin’s Appeal Over Stalled Land Development Code Update

Austin’s appeal to a court ruling against its land development code rewrite process opened Nov. 17 with brief arguments from lawyers representing the city and the nearly two dozen property owners seeking to stop the revision.

Austin’s land development code covers what may be built in the city and where, and the rewrite process has now played out for nearly a decade without resolution. Some officials and housing advocates have pointed to the code, first laid out in the 1980s, as a barrier to expanding new and affordable housing options in Austin.

Both sides’ Nov. 17 arguments before a panel of three justices in the 14th Court of Appeals followed their previous comments at trial and from court filings.

Jane Webre, representing the city, stuck to Austin’s assertion that the homeowners’ rights to a notice of intention to rezoning and their ability to protest such actions should not come into play if every part of a city is rezoned. Click to read more at www.communityimpact.com.