City Council Member Ryan Alter met with about 50 constituents on Friday, answering questions and commenting on changes proposed for Zilker Park, among other issues. Several attendees expressed concern about the Council hearing on the plan for the park. Alter said he hopes the city will put out its final plan in the next few weeks. The city “should put those out as far in advance as possible,” he said, adding that the first opportunity to discuss them would be the work session before the Council meeting that had that item on its agenda. In response to concerns that the item would be on the July 20 agenda, Alter said that would be a surprise to him, because that agenda is already very full. Instead, he expects Council to schedule the item for the last meeting in August or the first meeting in September. In response to questions about how long each speaker will have to address Council, Alter said there are no rules on that so far.
As far as plans to cut Barton Springs Road from two lanes to one lane each way, Alter expressed disagreement. The transportation planners “were charged with what would you do for a park road, not what would you do for regional transportation,” he said. “I think anyone who drives Barton Springs Road east-west to get to and from MoPac (Expressway) understands it is the access point to get to MoPac unless you go to (U.S. Highway) 290 or cross the river, and that’s just not realistic for a lot of people.”
Alter said the plan is not workable for the transportation needs of the region. However, he noted that the section of Barton Springs Road from Lamar Boulevard to Azie Morton Road would be the subject of experimentation, with lanes cut from two to one and back to two. That experiment, which he said will last for about a year, will measure how helpful such a change would be to bike riders, in particular.