Residents, advocates push for Zilker shoreline, education and tree projects as staff outline Sunken Gardens and bank stabilization work

Public speakers urged more work on shoreline restoration, interpretive education and transparency around nonprofit park partners while city staff outlined erosion stabilization, invasive species removal and tree‑planting projects for Zilker Park at an Oct. 22, 2025 meeting of the Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee.

In a string of public comments before the staff briefing, Mike Kanati, identified as chair of Zilker 351, asked the committee to endorse priority projects from the council‑approved Barton Springs Pool master plan that would reduce erosion and improve water quality and trail connections. "For over 20 years, city council has noted there are chronic conditions at Zilker that need immediate need for improvements," Kanati said, and he pointed committee attention to shoreline restoration, invasive removal and completion of a Zilker Loop trail described in the 2009 plan.

Other speakers pressed different points. Chris Flores, speaking from District 10, criticized private event operations in the park and said, "The commercializer contracts are not public. They're hidden from elected people and hidden from public in order to debate them." Mark May, who said he lives in District 5, questioned whether nonprofit partners—naming the Austin Parks Foundation (APF) without disputing its work—should contribute more financially to park upkeep: "Their CEO is compensated much more than our mayor," May said, noting…