Commissioners seek parking study, Polo Field restoration

Two parking items cleared the Environmental Commission last week, a notable achievement considering that certain parking issues tend to devolve into prolonged debates.

At its Feb. 7 meeting, commissioners considered two proposals within the framework of City Council’s elimination of minimum parking requirements. First, Commissioner Hanna Cofer introduced a proposal requesting that the city of Austin work with an independent research partner to study the environmental impacts of various types of parking and determine best practices toward advancing the city’s climate goals.

Cofer’s first draft of the resolution included language that triggered opposition from several speakers who apparently feared the item would revive a proposal to build parking garages within Zilker Metropolitan Park as part of the now-defunct Zilker Vision Plan. Prior to the discussion, Cofer edited her draft, striking the word “parks” in the text, and later accepted amendments from other commissioners.

Explaining her rationale for the item, Cofer noted that Council’s elimination of minimum parking requirements doesn’t necessarily mean that developers won’t build parking spaces beyond what’s required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Since the commission is often asked to weigh in on development cases that include parking in environmentally sensitive areas, she said, it would be preferable to have “a shared language and facts and data, and not just perceptions and jingles, about which (type of) parking is best.” Commissioner Jennifer Bristol agreed, stating that several cities have already adopted sustainable parking strategies.

Indeed, parking management trade publications report a number of changes taking shape with respect to vertical parking structures integrating eco-friendly elements such as green roofs, vertical gardens and solar panels to improve air quality and reduce the heat island effect.

The commissioners also passed a proposal urging the Parks and Recreation Department to request funding in next year’s budget for restoration of the Zilker Park Polo Field by adding topsoil, planting native grasses, creating stormwater diversion elements and banning regular parking on the Polo Field starting in Fiscal Year 2025, presumably after the Austin City Limits Festival. Last summer, commissioners had tabled a similar proposal to ban parking on the field.

The Polo Field item, brought by commissioners Richard Brimer and Dave Sullivan, generated a positive response from the same speakers who spoke in opposition to Cofer’s item. Most of the speakers stated they live in District 5 and are part of the Rewild Zilker group, which last year waged a rather muscular campaign against the Zilker Vision Plan.

A successful restoration of the Polo Field, of course, would require enforcement of a parking ban while allowing parking only during special events, which would be conditional on event organizers having the means to remediate any damages to the field.

In its current well-worn state, the Polo Field serves as a parking lot for an estimated 1,000 vehicles, so the commissioners also want the city to identify alternative parking elsewhere or near Zilker Park. Additionally, commissioners recommended the allocation of parking spaces within Zilker Park to accommodate older adults, families with small children and people with limited mobility.

Brimer noted that even though the field has been partially restored through plantings and aeration over the years, “no one can ever say that it’s been totally restored … so the goal of this effort is to restore it to a pristine state,” he said. (Brimer, who had joined the meeting remotely, was unable to vote on the item due to a technical disconnect shortly before the vote.)

Regarding the use of off-site parking structures as a possible alternative to the Polo Field, Sullivan said such an arrangement could also carry a high cost due to liability coverage. “You have to wrangle things like insurance and when you can use it … so figuring out how to get access and get a contract to use those parking garages is something that the city ought to look into.

“But the first step,” he continued, “is getting the council to buy in to the concept that we are going to restore the Polo Field and it’s going to be permanently restored, and it’s not going to be used for parking anymore. And at that point, they’ll be incentivized to look for other solutions that use nearby commercial parking or shuttles or some other solution that does not involve parking on the Polo Field.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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Posted In: Parks, District 5