To the first question, Commissioner Conor Kenny shared his personal motto: “A taco truck on every corner!”Kenny is part of the Commission’s non-residential working group, which studied the code draft and was disappointed to find that food trucks are allowed in all “main street” zones, but not in any residential multi-unit zones or in the lowest-intensity mixed-use It’s not a

The working group, which also includes commissioners Yvette Flores and Jeffrey Thompson, proposed a more generous policy on food trucks that would still welcome them in the main street zones, but designate them as a permitted use in lower-intensity mixed-use and all Residents of residential multi-unit zones as well.

The group also found the code’s policies on restaurants too conservative for its taste. The current draft limits restaurants that serve beer or wine and are open late at night to the three most intense mixed-use zones and only the most intense main street category. At the same time, restaurants not open late and not serving alcohol are allowed in all mixed-use and main street zones. The group suggested a simple fix that would also allow restaurants serving beer or wine in those zones and could loose restrictions on operation hours to some extent.

Compared to a typical fast-food joint without an alcohol permit, Kenny said, these restaurants, which are not bars or cocktail lounges, are actually the kinds of places many people would want in their neighborhoods.

Continuing on this vein, the group took issue with the draft code’s restrictions on child care centers, which are determined by the number of children enrolled. Not only is the somewhat arbitrary criteria, group members found the thresholds themselves are too low, limiting centers in residential mixed-use zones to no more than 24 children. Going beyond that number would require obtaining a conditional use permit, which Kenny said has been a complex process in the past, involving a full site review of things like parking, landscaping and drainage, even when there’s no new square footage has been proposed.

Flores agreed, saying the review process could be more “palatable” for people if it were triggered at a higher number – over 30 children, for example. Kenny also suggested simplifying permitting in cases where a site would simply change uses without changing any structures themselves, ensuring the code doesn’t use those uses by requiring conditional use permits.

The Commission’s residential working group has also requested loosening restrictions around use, as in the case of properties with manufactured homes.

The draft code sets the minimum size for a manufactured home park at 90,000 square feet and a minimum unit count at 20, but Commissioner James Shieh said the city currently has lots that are much smaller than that, around 10,000 square feet, with manufactured homes.

Instead of putting these property owners in a predicament by deeming them noncompliant with code, the residential working group suggested making a new zoning category for manufactured homes on smaller lots. The new category would help owners remain in compliance and would even allow them to add new, small-scale manufactured homes to their lots that could be sold at affordable prices.

The commission will continue to propose edits to the Land Development Code in the coming weeks. City Council will also be holding a public hearing on the code in November leading up to its initial vote on the code draft on Dec. 9.

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City of Austin Land Development Code: The city’s Land Development Code regulates building and development in the city of Austin. As part of the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan, the code is currently undergoing a rewrite in what is called the “CodeNEXT.”That process is expected to be completed in 2016.

City of Austin Planning Commission: This commission addresses issues of land use as assigned to it by Austin’s City Code. These include the abilities” to make and amend a master plan, recommend approval or disapproval of proposed zoning changes and control land subdivision within neighborhood planning areas and submit, annually, a list of recommended capital improvements.”It has sovereign authority, or the right to make final decisions on certain cases.

City of Austin lawyers are refuting the claims of an Austin nonprofit that has been campaigning for property owners to protest the possible rezoning of their land under the city’s land use code rewrite.”City officials plan to rezone your home…

Five days a week, we bring you the news. The Austin Monitor is owned by the Capital of Texas Media Foundation, which purchased the publication on Oct. 4, 2013. We stick to the facts. We strive to get it right and be fair to all; when we err, we correct it fast.