The Parks and Recreation Board last week heard the results of the second community engagement process on the Sir Swante Palm Neighborhood Park as part of the third phase of the Waterloo Greenway Project. PARD staff restarted the community engagement effort in 2023 since several years had passed since the first outreach, Parks and Rec […]
Parks and Recreation Board
The city’s Parks and Recreation Board members deal with the acquisition, development, improvement, and maintenance of Austin’s parks and playgrounds.
Posted inParks
Hays Commons development’s parkland proposal wins support from Parks Board
The Parks and Recreation Board has given a proposed development its unanimous support based on the amount of parkland the builder has promised to provide on a nearly 500-acre site straddling Travis and Hays counties. The development, Hays Commons, is currently seeking to create a municipal utility district (MUD) through the Texas Commission on Environmental […]
Posted inParks
Parks board asks City Council to review why boating concession ordinance exempted community input
The Parks and Recreation Board wants City Council to reexamine, and possibly rescind, a 2019 ordinance allowing an adventure excursion company to operate a boating concession in East Austin without going through a public process. The company, called the Expedition School, is poised to begin building out its concession operations along Lady Bird Lake’s north […]
Posted inParks
Parks board to ask Council to explain why it bypassed public input on a Lady Bird Lake boat rental concession
Members of the Parks and Recreation Board said Monday they will ask City Council to reexamine a 2019 ordinance that circumvented public input to allow an adventure excursion company to operate a boating concession on Lady Bird Lake. The request for Council reconsideration may be futile, board members also acknowledged. By the time the board […]
Posted inBudget
Parks board recommends beefing up funding for city parks maintenance
With increasing challenges in maintaining grounds within Austin’s busy parks system, the Parks and Recreation Board voted Monday to recommend that City Council allocate an additional $2.62 million to the Parks and Recreation Department budget for the new fiscal year. Of that amount, the board requested that $2.24 million be allocated toward parks maintenance, including […]
Posted inParks
Parks Board hears from the public on the next (and former) PARD director
The Parks and Recreation Board got an earful of public testimony earlier this month regarding the city’s national search to replace former parks director Kimberly McNeeley. McNeeley recently left the Parks and Recreation Department after accepting the position of CEO of the Trail Conservancy, one of the department’s nonprofit partners. Several speakers, including some department […]
Posted inTransportation
Parks Board recommends approval of Violet Crown trail funding
Anyone who tuned in last week to watch the Parks and Recreation Board deliberate a $900,000 contract agreement with a nonprofit may have been surprised by the rare absence of a live broadcast of the meeting. And they may have been equally surprised there was no archived recording of the meeting available on the city’s […]
Posted inWater
Water quality plan draws opposition from Reed Park neighbors
A water quality improvement project slated for a West Austin neighborhood park has sparked controversy among Tarrytown neighbors opposed to the prospect of losing an informal ball field to a biofiltration pond for stormwater runoff. Reed Neighborhood Park, given to the city in the 1950s by the late Roberta Crenshaw, an Austin environmental doyenne for […]
Posted inCity Hall
Did rejection of Parks Board appointee have a deeper meaning?
On April 3, the name Ted Eubanks was on the list of members of the public who were expected to be appointed to various boards and commissions at the following day’s City Council meeting. But on April 4, Eubanks’ name was not on the final version of the list. Council Member Mackenzie Kelly had nominated […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Musician advocates decry city’s inaction on fair pay for SXSW performers
With South by Southwest set to kick off over the weekend, advocates for musicians are calling attention to what they say is inadequate progress on the issue of fair pay for official showcase performances during the festival. Those calls come as city leaders have taken no official action on the small policy recommendations supported by […]
Posted inParks
Debate intensifies over code changes to Butler Hike and Bike trail
Austin’s Parks and Recreation Board drew a crowd this past Monday, gathering to debate a number of code amendments targeting the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail at Lady Bird Lake. The amendments, prompted by City Council direction last spring, would eliminate the existing 12-foot cap on the trail’s width and mandate a […]
Posted inParks
Parks board blesses bathhouse renaming
More than 60 years ago, Joan Means Khabele jumped into Barton Springs Pool, launching a movement that led to its desegregation. Austin is now set to remember her legacy by renaming the Barton Springs Bathhouse after her. After being denied entrance due to the racist rules in place at the time, Khabele is known as […]