Austin’s city council is in the midst of a heated debate regarding a new zoning bill called CodeNEXT. Of its many functions, CodeNEXT serves to solve the problem of urban sprawl by attempting to move the concentration of citizens from the suburbs surrounding Austin into the main city itself. Though CodeNEXT aims to solve one of Austin’s most pressing problems (the constant barrage of new citizens flooding in and having no place to put them) it will present a whole new swath of unfriendly issues. A serious critique of CodeNEXT that it will force increased density in Central Austin. 

While the changes to be made to the land use codes are meant to defend against gentrification by creating affordable housing, given the natural pattern of migration in this city, most of the housing will end up not being affordable at all. Instead, the more likely outcome will be more expensive lodging for the same demographic that already resides in Central Austin. Historically, it has been more beneficial for low-income residents to live in the inner city as it is more pedestrian friendly is usually home to better, more complete support systems like shelters, food banks, and public transportation. But if CodeNEXT is enacted, a very likely consequence would be more of the same wildly pricey townhouses and apartments. 

Another related inevitability is that CodeNEXT will force longtime residents out of their homes, another symptom of the gentrification virus. By re-zoning land that was previously pseudo-protected, the changes will make it all that easier for big real estate companies to swoop in and drive property values up. Once all the old residents are pushed out, then these companies can build newer, better, more expensive housing. This is directly antithetical to Austin’s long-running efforts to preserve those original neighborhoods. Even if the companies promise the city that most of the housing will affordable, they can easily get around this agreement by paying the city a relatively small fine.

It is worth mentioning that CodeNEXT, in part, seeks to minimize the risks of flooding in Austin. By concentrating on increasing density and limiting growth outside the city, the land usage code changes would make more space for loose soil to soak up rain. However, the social effect of these shifts would be more immediately noticeable and significantly more detrimental, and there are other, more responsible ways to protect against the threat of flooding. 

In this effort to combat sprawl, CodeNEXT actually deprives the citizens who could stand to benefit the most from these re-zonings— the lower income families who do not have the means to commute from the more affordable suburbs nor the funds to live in an area that is more pedestrian and public transport friendly. Truly, it the passing of CodeNEXT would only serve to exacerbate the issues that Austin citizens actually care about solving.