Environmental Commission recommends Zilker vision plan along with list of conditions

The city’s Environmental Commission voted last week to approve a resolution recommending the Zilker Metropolitan Park Vision Plan – albeit with a lengthy list of recommendations that include further public engagement and environmental monitoring.

The resolution notes that the vision plan includes environmental site analysis of the general ecology of the park, review of environmental contamination from historic land use, and review of the Edwards Aquifer, plant communities and environmental regulations. It also notes the environmental improvements outlined in the plan, including a reduction in impervious cover, bank stabilization of Barton Creek, ecological uplift, drainage enhancements and more.

However, the commission included a list of 20 conditions along with the resolution.

First, the commission would like the Parks and Recreation Department to continue conducting public hearings and incorporating public comment, and seek City Council approval during the design and implementation phases of the plan. The commission also recommends detailed hydrogeologic, geophysical and geotechnical studies to confirm there will be no impact to the Austin blind salamander habitat.

The commission further recommended the city coordinate with the Texas Department of Transportation or the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority regarding parking under MoPac Expressway within 30 days of plan approval. It would also like the design team to clarify the impervious cover calculations in the plan and submit the final draft to the city’s Equity Office for review and comment.

In an email after the meeting, Save Our Springs Alliance praised the commission for delivering “a couple of big wins” that include condition No. 8, which recommends the removal of language in the plan regarding creation of an umbrella nonprofit. SOS said it’s the commission’s way of trying to “rein in further privatization and commercialization of the park.”

Karen Blizzard, project manager for the Zilker Collective Impact Working Group and interim director of the newly formed Zilker 351 group, told the Austin Monitor that the recommendation doesn’t address the umbrella nonprofit language actually in the draft plan.

“The draft vision plan does not recommend that an umbrella nonprofit organization would oversee Zilker Park. Parks and Recreation would continue to oversee operations of Zilker Park,” Blizzard said.

In response, SOS’s Bill Bunch called the characterization an “absurd obfuscation.”

“The draft plan is clear that the umbrella would oversee all of the private for-profit and nonprofit concessioners and event sponsors operations, and that any time the parks department or concerned citizens had any problems or objections about those operations they have to go through the barrier of the ‘single point of contact’ umbrella,” Bunch told the Monitor. “There are tons of questions about the details, but the overall thrust is overseeing and blocking direct accountability of all the private operations in the park – private operations that would be greatly expanded by the plan.”

The commission voted 9-1-1 to pass the resolution, with Commissioner Pam Thompson voting no and Commissioner Jennifer Bristol absent.

Last month, the city’s Parks and Recreation Board also raised concerns about the prospect of an umbrella nonprofit arrangement and asked for more public engagement on the plan.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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