Committee hears parkland acquisition briefing, Evergreen Austin urges $300 million bond for land banking

Austin’s Parks and Recreation Committee heard a briefing on parkland acquisition and land-banking practices on Sept. 24, with city staff laying out recent acquisitions, the impact of state legislation on parkland dedication fees and proposed priorities for a 2026 bond package.

Amanda Messino, professor of biology and director of environmental justice at Huston–Tillotson University and a volunteer with the nonprofit Evergreen Austin, urged the committee to adopt an annual public heat map overlaying streets and parks to track tree canopy and cooling benefits and recommended a $300 million bond for parkland and open-space acquisition in the 2026 package. "We need a way to measure the progress," Messino said, arguing that some publicly owned lands — including golf courses and water-conservation tracts — do not provide the same cooling or public access as strollable parks.

The briefing from Austin Parks and Recreation (PARD) described accomplishments from the 2018 bond, the department’s short-term funding gap after changes in state law, and draft priorities for 2026. Jesus Aguirre, PARD director, said the department is tracking both per-capita acreage and a Park Access goal to put parks within a walkable distance of every resident. "One metric is really about how much per-capita acreage we have and then the more important metric around access," Aguirre said.

Randy Scott, land use manager for PARD’s Parkland Acquisition and Dedication…