What's in the Zilker Park vision plan set for Austin City Council vote

Zilker Park is on track for a major facelift, but that is not without opposition from several people in the community.

In May, the Austin Parks and Recreation Board approved a vision plan for Zilker Park that would upgrade the area, including adding three parking garages, several new pedestrian and bicycle bridges, a welcome center and a land bridge over Barton Springs Road. The park would gain more than 90 acres in green space.

While it could be years before any improvements are made, and the plan still has several votes to go through before it can be implemented, the community remains divided on how best to improve access at the park without disturbing the current culture.

Each year, the park brings in up to 2.5 million people from all over the country for events like the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and some of the city's grandest local traditions like the Austin Kite Festival, the Trail of Lights and Blues on the Green.

It also serves as a hub for many recreational activities and amenities that bring people and families to the park daily, including the Barton Springs Pool, Zilker Botanical Gardens, Austin Nature and Science Center and the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail. On any given day, parkgoers can be found playing sand volleyball, sunbathing on the great lawn or exercising on the trails that surround it.

As Austin has continued to grow, becoming a major metroplex connected to some of the fastest growing suburban areas, the needs and demands for housing, parks and transportation have also grown.

In the case of Zilker, the challenges remain evident. There is a need for parking, a need for other accessible options, such as shuttles, public transportation and safe biking and walking routes, and a need for a safe, natural and open place to play.

The vision plan, several local leaders and officials feel, is the best way to address that.

Kimberly McNeeley, director for the Parks and Recreation Department, said over the last several decades the park has continued to experience unprecedented usage, and as an environmental treasure the city has been grappling with how to accommodate the growing needs.

"There has been thought into how to develop this plan," she said. "We have spent over two years trying to capture all the things that Austin wants to see at Zilker. Not everyone agrees but I assure you the team tried to take the best of everything and make it into something that you could consider with confidence."

In November 2020, the city began looking at developing a vision plan for the park starting with community engagement and public input workshops. This was the first comprehensive effort that looks at the park as a whole.

Through community engagement, the city learned that for visitors who do not live directly adjacent to the park, getting there and driving through it are some of the top challenges. Additionally, the parking lots are often full.

Claire Hempel, lead consultant for the vision plan, said the consultants calculated the spaces available today and they decided to keep the same number of spaces but make it easier to navigate to those spaces through formal, structured parking in the three garages, one of which would be underground.

But several members of the community disagree with the use of parking garages, saying the structures would ruin the look and feel of the park. In a meeting in May, more than 200 people filled the downtown city hall chambers, many of them to dispute the park's vision plan.

David Weinberg, who has lived in Austin since 2009 and frequents the park weekly, said while everyone agrees there is a need for parking, the garages wouldn't address the real need, which is better access. He said many of his fellow neighbors and parkgoers agree that can be accomplished in other ways like expanding the shuttle service, improving nearby off-site parking options and finding creative solutions to the current parking situation with green parking lots, which use landscape materials and other techniques to eliminate environmental impacts.

"I don't know anybody who wants to see parking garages built in Zilker Park," Weinberg said. "I hope that dawns on city council before July 20 and I will be working hard to make sure it does."

While it is not the most supported option, Hempel and other city officials emphasized that parking needs to be more efficient. Additionally, the current parking situation has a large impervious cover footprint, making it easy for chemicals from cars to leak into the creeks and aquifer. The garages would add a more direct place for parking and would keep those chemicals from leaking into the nearby water sources and green spaces.

"I understand the public's concern, but it's important we support Austinites visiting from all points of the city who primarily rely on a car for commuting," said council member Paige Ellis. "I’ll continue advocating for investments that support multi-modal transit and reduce reliance on single-occupancy vehicles."

Other options for accessibility are also often limited.

Bike racks fill up quickly. It takes some residents up to two and a half hours to get there via the bus line and it often means multiple bus changes and walking or biking in between stops. And walking from nearby garages and parking lots can range from half a mile to a mile and a half.

Last year, the city piloted free shuttle rides from One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Road, to the park, which has gained popularity and will need to be expanded, Hempel said. Service resumed over the Memorial Day weekend.

Accessibility is just one issue. There are environmental concerns around erosion and degrading ecological systems along the creek, concerns about the need for historical preservation and a growing popularity for programming at the clubhouses and Zilker Hillside Theatre.

The vision plan would call for relocating the theater to a corner of the great lawn and increasing the size of the venue to accommodate up to 5,000 people.

Many members of the community felt this was an unnecessary addition, citing the recent opening of the nearby Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park, which is about 5 miles north of Zilker by car, as well as the reduction of green space on the lawn that many parkgoers use for kite flying, picnicking and other leisurely activities.

Greg Montes, program manager for Austin Parks and Recreation, said this theater would "not be like the Waterloo one." He said the amphitheater currently hosts several programs throughout the year including musicals, Shakespeare in the Park and other shows, but as the city has grown so has its programs.

Montes said guests often outnumber the available seats. Visitors often bring lawn chairs to sit outside the available seating. Additionally, the theater is old, and the maintenance is getting expensive. Parking can also be limited and congested, considering it shares a parking lot with the Barton Springs Pool visitors.

"It is just not sustainable anymore," Montes said. "And we keep doing ongoing maintenance on a structure that is not meeting the needs."

He said the new theater will also give the park a chance to partner more with its neighboring institutions, like the botanical gardens and the science and nature center, to expand their outdoor programming.

Rumors have also circulated about the sale of Austin's beloved park to multinational entertainment company Live Nation, which many believed was being hidden behind a new nonprofit that will be created as part of the plan. But the city has shut down the rumors saying, "the draft plan in no way, sets out a path to privatization of this beloved public green space. It also does not call for any additional events in the parks, nor does it include corporate partnerships."

The Austin City Council is expected to review and approve the draft plan in July, which would move the project into the implementation and design phase. It will still be several years before any changes are made.

The plan and the costs will likely change, so Montes said the city will be working with the community and city leaders on how best to move forward so the park serves generations to come. The city will also be working on how best to fund the projects, which could be through bonds, grants and nonprofit donations and fundraising.

Montes assured the public they would have a say in the design and implementation phases.

More:A park almost twice the size of Zilker is coming to Central Texas. Here are the details.

Pedro Villalobos, chair for the parks board, said the goal is making the park accessible for everyone in Austin and preserving the space so that it can be enjoyed for generations to come, and this was "not a one size fits all solution."

Stephanie Bazan, who sits on the parks board, shared similar thoughts saying, "our common ground is that we love Zilker park," but reminded the community that the park was for everyone, and the decision was about "keeping everybody in mind."

"Zilker does belong to all of us," she said. "And I think this draft serves as a starting point for moving forward."