Trial date pushed back for Austin land development code lawsuit

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The trial date for a lawsuit over Austin’s proposed new land development code has been pushed back.

Originally, the case was set to go to trial Feb. 18. Instead, both parties have now agreed it will be on March 9 at 9 a.m. in the Travis County Courthouse.

One day after the Austin City Council approved the first of three required readings of the new land development code, it faced a lawsuit from 19 Austin residents. The lawsuit wants Austin City Council to recognize certain landowner protest rights, and wants it to admit it didn’t provide proper notice of a hearing. Acknowledging that would essentially void Austin Planning Commission’s recommendations on the code rewrite and the City Council’s vote on it moving forward.

Austin’s land development code, which defines rules for building in the city, has not had a major update in three decades. The city council and Planning Commission have worked for months on proposals for the new code. A previously proposed update, called Code NEXT, was scrapped last year after years of work. At the time, Mayor Steve Adler said the move was necessary because the discussions had become so divisive.

Doug Becker, of Gray & Becker, is representing the plaintiffs and said in a statement “The short 20-day postponement of the trial will still facilitate a quick answer to the legal issues raised in our lawsuit, which will benefit everyone.”

The city has previously released a statement on the trial, saying, “The City of Austin’s position is that the weight of the authorities on this issue supports the position that individual landowners do not have protest rights when a municipality seeks to enact a comprehensive revision of its zoning classifications and associated regulations.”