How many years should it take for a concession in city parks to gain legacy status? City staff are proposing 30 years, but some Parks and Recreation Board members say that number is too high.
After deliberating whether to recommend lowering the threshold, the board ultimately voted to ask City Council to weigh how women and minority-owned businesses might factor into the legacy designation.
The new designation is part of a package of proposed revisions to the Parks and Recreation Department’s concession guidelines, which have not been updated since 1998.
The item had been set for City Council’s Oct. 9 agenda but has since been withdrawn, possibly in response to the board’s questions about the legacy criteria.
These questions followed testimony from Rowing Dock owners Susan Goldberg and her daughter, Kate Aoueille, who urged the board to lower the threshold to 20 years, and to consider women- and minority-owned businesses as part of the criteria.
“We are in support of the establishment of a legacy concessionaire but, as currently written, the requirement of 30 continuous years under the same family would leave only one concessionaire eligible,” Aoueille told the board. “We believe legacy status should emphasize longevity and inclusivity while also recognizing businesses with existing women- or minority-owned ownership who might face greater risks of displacement despite decades of contributions to Austin’s culture and recreational services.”
Even if lowered to 20 years, Rowing Dock would not qualify, PARD’s Denisha Cox told the board. Although the business has operated for decades as a woman-owned concession on the southwestern end of Lady Bird Lake, Goldberg and Aoueille have only owned it since 2010. To qualify as a legacy concessionaire, the same family must own the business throughout.
Rowing Dock’s current revenue concession agreement with the city expires Oct. 31, with an option to extend for up to one additional year, according to staff. The department had previously planned to open competition for the concession before the agreement’s expiration but delayed the process pending City Council’s decision on the broader revisions.
Meanwhile, PARD Director Jesús Aguirre told the board that the department is consulting with the city manager’s office on whether the criteria could be more flexible.
Under the draft proposal, only one park concessionaire would qualify for legacy status — Zilker Park Boat Rentals, which has been operated by the same family since 1969.
Board members Ted Eubanks and Pedro Villalobos agreed that the criteria seemed onerous.
“I would like to see us lower the number of years to be qualified from 30 to 25,” Eubanks said, noting that other cities have policies of 25 years or less. “Thirty seems excessive and we do want to protect legacy businesses.”
Villalobos said a family would have to “dedicate three decades of their collective lives in order to get that legacy status. I do think that there is some merit to the argument we just heard from the Rowing Dock – I wish this (argument) would have been brought to us sooner because this would have been important to have a conversation about in the Concessions and Contracts Committee” of the parks board, he said.
Other board members said they would need more information before they could recommend an alternative threshold. Still others expressed discomfort over recommending any changes. Chair Stephanie Bazan suggested that board members talk to their appointing Council member if they have strong feelings one way or another.
Still, Eubanks argued that the board would simply be meeting its charge to advise the Council on issues. “We’re just providing a perspective, and Council will do as Council does … if we agree that perhaps these limits are too high and they should be lowered, we can say that.”
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