Hutto, Texas, adopts SmartCode

Hutto, Texas, became the second city in that state to adopt a citywide SmartCode, according to Community Development Director Matthew Lewis. The consultants on the project were Placemakers, Gateway Planning Group, and the architecture firm ERO. Hutto is a fast-growing municipality 20 miles north of Austin. The newly adopted SmartCode will replace the current zoning standards in Hutto’s historic downtown — which the city hopes to redevelop with civic buildings and spaces and a mixture of retail and residential units — as well as be applied to future development along the state Highway 130 corridor, Lewis says. The city also adopted the SmartCode as a citywide optional code — the first city to do so in Central Texas and the second, along with El Paso, in the state — to serve as a template for growth in currently undeveloped areas.