Stop Transition Zones in Austin

Austin City Council

Help stop Austin's displacement crisis from getting worse!

The "next" CodeNEXT has arrived, and it's worse than its predecessor. If you live in Austin and aren't a member of the 1%, then watch out: The city's new land-redevelopment plan could displace you, your family, and your neighbors.

As part of that plan, the Austin City Council has identified neighborhoods throughout our community where the land underneath existing homes will be rezoned to accommodate tall condominium buildings, four-packs of rental units on single lots, and in some cases commercial businesses. Known as "transition" zones, they will trigger sharp increases in property taxes and rents, leading to the displacement of current residents.

Click here to see if you live in one of the city council's proposed transition zones. Then sign our petition to stop them!

To: Austin City Council
From: [Your Name]

Austinites have worked hard to establish wonderful neighborhoods, but you and the staff you oversee don't respect the people who live in them.

Last year, the controversial CodeNEXT rezoning plan was withdrawn because it benefited land developers rather than our neighborhoods and their current residents. Now you are proposing something much worse.

You have called for the creation of “transition” zones, wide areas where existing neighborhoods will be torn down and redeveloped, displacing scores of everyday Austinites from their communities. They are proposed in neighborhoods lining both sides of nearly every major and medium-sized roadway in the city, blanketing the bulk of Central, East, and South Austin.

Those transition zones will incentivize the demolition of tens of thousands of single-family homes. They will encourage the construction of luxury high- and mid-rises, some as tall as 65 feet. They will remove parking requirements for all properties within a quarter-mile of major roadways, aggravating traffic congestion.

Worst of all, transition zones will increase property taxes and rents, leading to the displacement of current residents by land speculators and affluent buyers. Transition zones won't solve our displacement crisis—they will greatly accelerate it.

CodeNEXT was driven by private profit, not the public good. It was designed for and by the land-development industry, not the local community. We believe your new plan to redevelop Austin through the use of transition zones suffers the same problems, and that it deserves the same fate.

We ask you to withdraw this plan and replace it with one developed hand-in-hand with the people most impacted by these issues: members of the local community.