Possible crowd coming to parks board

Austinites tuned in to their neighborhood listserv Thursday morning were urged to attend next Monday’s meeting of the city’s Parks and Recreation Board – 6 p.m. at City Hall – to discuss the controversial Zilker Park vision plan. Speakers may sign up ahead of time to speak for the allotted three minutes by calling the board’s coordinator, Tim Dombeck, at (512) 974-6716 or emailing Tim.Dombeck@austintexas.gov. Those wishing to speak remotely must sign up by noon the day before the meeting. Dombeck said approximately half a dozen people had already signed up to speak by mid-afternoon on Thursday. He indicated that the number was a little higher than usual. However, it is not clear from the agenda whether the parks board will actually be discussing the meat of the proposal. The agenda indicates that the board will be discussing the public engagement process for the draft Zilker Park vision plan.

Members of the Zilker Neighborhood Association, with input from the Barton Springs and Bouldin neighborhood groups along with Save Our Springs Alliance and Save Barton Creek Association, have put forth an alternative proposal that calls for “rewilding” the park. Their proposal and the city’s proposal have some overlap, but the neighborhood proposal does not include the increase of 29 parking spaces, among other things, that the city proposal envisions. The board is also scheduled to consider whether to recommend issuing requests for proposals or extending contracts with a variety of Town Lake Park vendors, which should draw a number of people to voice their support for entities like the Butler Pitch and Putt and the Waller Creek Boathouse.

This whisper has been edited to remove a reference to a “huge” increase in parking spaces. In fact, the vision plan only proposes an increase of 29 spaces.