On October 17, 2013, the Austin City Council passed a new Watershed Protection Ordinance, completing Phase 1 of the new ordinance. There's still work to be done on Phase 2, Green Stormwater Infrastructure.
The ordinance improves creek and floodplain protection; prevents unsustainable public expense on drainage systems; simplifies development regulations where possible; and minimizes the impact on the ability to develop land.
The City held a series of stakeholder meetings from August 2011 through July 2014 to obtain public input. A followup series of Green Infrastructure Working Group meetings was conducted from January through June of 2015. This series of meetings was part of the City's land development code rewrite process, CodeNEXT. The result of this input was used to guide City staff recommendations for the watershed protection elements in the Natural and Built Environment Code Prescription. This information was in turn included in the draft CodeNEXT document that was released to the public on January 30, 2017.