December Parks and Recreation Department report identifies needs for senior and recreation facilities

Last week, Jesús Aguirre, the new director of Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD), sent a memo summarizing the findings of the department’s Recreation and Senior Center Facility Assessment and Gap Analysis Report. The report, released in December, identified priority areas in need of new senior and rec centers and highlighted some renovation and repair needs at existing facilities.

“PARD and its consultants have worked with an equity framework over the past two years to … assess the levels of service and conditions of existing recreation and senior center facilities,” Aguirre said in the memo.

The report compares Austin to national averages, using data collected by the Trust for Public Land (which recently ranked Austin 44th on its scorecard for parks systems for the 100 most populated U.S. cities) and the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA).

Austin currently has three public senior centers and 22 community recreation centers. Thirteen of the community recreation centers have a gymnasium. Five of the remaining nine community centers are intended to serve specific geographic areas.

Several of the report recommendations would bring Austin up to meet NRPA averages. NRPA data shows a national average of 65,909 people per rec center (compared to Austin’s 74,167), 109,710 people per non-gymnasium community center (which Austin surpasses at 107,131) and 294,394 people per senior center (Austin averages 321,392).

Most of the city’s current senior and rec centers align with the highest population density (north and south along MoPac Expressway and I-35). Population density is now anticipated to increase along the city’s outer edges where city facilities are more sparse. Building off of this data, report recommendations include an additional senior center in North or Northeast Austin and two additional rec centers (with gymnasiums) located north and southeast.

“The report illustrates how Austin’s rapid growth in population has outpaced our development of programs and services in recently annexed areas,” City Council Member Mike Siegel told the Austin Monitor. Siegel emphasized that some parts of his North Austin district, like Tech Ridge, are actually closer to public facilities owned by the city of Pflugerville.

“I’m hopeful we can develop a capital improvement plan that ensures that Austinites at the edges of the city limits can enjoy the same quality of life as folks in the city center,” he added.

Council Member Paige Ellis told the Monitor she was disappointed that the recommended locations for new facilities did not include her Southwest Austin district.

“In my district, in particular, there is a noticeable lack of community spaces. Our only PARD facilities are in Zilker Park or Dick Nichols Park,” she said. “We have an older population than average, and I think it’s important to bring improved and expanded community spaces to serve them.”

One recommendation from PARD’s 2020-2030 Long Range Plan was to balance the distribution of facilities citywide, both geographically and from an equity perspective. The December report will help inform this effort. The report’s introduction notes that PARD has formed a racial equity committee and that the department intends to engage with the city’s Equity Office as part of their planning efforts: “Austin’s history of segregationist policies, including the 1928 Master Plan that created the parks system and codified segregation of green spaces … has created and perpetuated institutional disparities.”

With this in mind, the report also evaluates the service areas of existing facilities.

“Council district boundaries do not appear to encourage or act as barriers to access facilities,” it states. “However, Interstate 35 clearly acts as a meaningful barrier to access between east and west, and the Colorado River/Ladybird Lake similarly appears to divide communities from north to south.”

Later, the report further expands on geographic and accessibility-related needs: “There is a high concentration of recreation and community center resources in the central-eastern portion of the city, much with overlapping service areas, creating competition for users. The demographic analysis suggests that further distribution of these resources to the outer edges of the city in the north and southeast is needed. The senior center facilities are also concentrated centrally, creating a strain on providing efficient senior transportation.”

Interestingly, report findings emphasize the need for further investment in the city’s existing facilities and programming, tying into the longstanding concern from parks advocates and city leaders about the department’s lack of funding.

“The overwhelming response from PARD staff through the development of this report indicated a need for investment in our existing facilities prior to considering the need for new facilities,” the report says. “Some facilities, such as Givens Recreation Center, Alamo Recreation Center, and Doris Miller Auditorium, should be evaluated by considering demolition, replacement, or extensive and invasive renovation. … Delores Duffie Auditorium and Hancock Recreation Center both have substantial limitations in meeting ADA accessibility requirements and lack functional spaces that support recreational programming, such as a gymnasium.”

Other report recommendations include potentially running PARD programming through partner facilities: “The department should consider the future programming and operations of the (city-run) North Austin YMCA, whose lease ends in 2030.”

The report also suggests exploring development opportunities with other city and county departments: “Austin Public Library … identifie(d) four areas in need of new libraries, several of which overlap areas of need for recreation and community centers. Central Health is opening two new health centers. … These locations align with this report’s high-need areas identified for recreation and senior centers.”

Alyssa Tharrett, a project management supervisor in PARD’s Architectural Development Division, told the Monitor that the report was created in anticipation of the next bond program.

“The Department will be providing a briefing of the report to the Parks and Recreation Board at their regular monthly meeting on Feb. 24,” she said. “Most of the immediate maintenance needs identified … were funded during the fiscal year 2024 and 2025 budget cycle through deferred maintenance requests and are currently underway. Larger improvement projects or new facilities are included in the preliminary list of projects for consideration in the 2026 bond.”

Most funds for new or expanded city facilities, as well as major renovations to existing ones, are generated through bond elections. City Council has been discussing a comprehensive bond package that would likely be on the ballot in 2026. In addition to climate-related investments, the proposed bond could include funding for parks, infrastructural improvements and other needs.

Community input opportunities to identify priorities for the bond are expected to ramp up later this spring.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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