In this episode, I sit down with Shane from Strong Towns Pflugerville to explore how a small group of residents is working to reshape the future of their city — one code update, one traffic cone, and one public comment at a time.

We discuss Pflugerville’s ongoing Unified Development Code update and why it’s such a rare and powerful opportunity to influence housing affordability, parking requirements, flooding, and long-term financial sustainability. Shane explains how reforming zoning and legalizing more diverse housing types like duplexes and triplexes could reduce sprawl, lower housing costs, and make the city more financially resilient — all while preserving Pflugerville’s suburban character.

The conversation also dives into transportation and safety, including a tactical urbanism experiment that temporarily slowed speeding in a neighborhood, why it worked, and why it was removed. Shane shares the tension between community-led street safety projects and existing legal frameworks, and how cities like Jackson, Tennessee are creating pathways to legalize small, citizen-driven improvements.

Find out more about their local conversation here: https://www.strongtownspf.org/