City staff and Friese & Nichols outline plan to reorganize Lago Vista’s development code

City staff and consultants Friese & Nichols presented a code diagnostic to the Lago Vista City Council recommending a reorganized Unified Development Code to resolve inconsistencies, reduce duplication and improve usability for residents and developers.

Evan Oczewski of Friese & Nichols summarized the diagnostic, which identified four major problem areas: code structure and organization, clarity/usability, zoning standards, and calibration of development standards. The consultants and staff urged starting with "function and legal compliance" — reorganizing chapters, centralizing definitions and enforcement sections, and separating technical standards from ordinance text so specifications can be administratively updated.

Jordan (development services) told council staff had prepared a proposed table of contents and a prioritized schedule focused on "easy wins" first, with more complex chapters addressed later. Staff recommended creating a subcommittee composed of council members, commission chairs and two citizen members to shepherd the reorganization; council discussion favored a small group and asked staff to post a charter and proposed members on the discussion board for the Feb. 19 meeting.

Council members stressed the importance of separating organizational cleanup from policy changes: staff and the consultant said policy decisions would be flagged and returned to council or the appropriate commission. Friese & Nichols recommended graphics, flowcharts and an engineering criteria manual for technical standards, and proposed an approach intended to improve predictability and reduce reliance on negotiated PDDs over time.

Staff said the process will be transparent, include dashboards and public updates, and aim to finish the functional reorganization ahead of any policy calibrations.