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 team, said voters approved $45 million for parkland acquisition in 2018; PARD has spent about $31 million and remains in active negotiations on the remaining roughly $14 million. Scott said the department has acquired more than 100 acres and added about 30 new parks or park expansions since that bond, and that the department’s service area — the share of residents within walking distance of a park — rose by about 7 percentage points after the 2018 funding.

Principal planner Robin Haynes reviewed recent acquisitions, including Cooper Neighborhood Park, Bull Creek Bluff Neighborhood Park, Jamestown Neighborhood Park, Shadywood Neighborhood Park and College Row Pocket Park adjacent to Huston–Tillotson University. Haynes said acquisitions were distributed across the city with emphasis on park-deficient areas and greenbelt connections.

PARD staff and Evergreen Austin speakers both emphasized the effects of Texas House Bill 1526, passed in 2023, on the city’s Parkland Dedication (PLD) program. Liana Karibuka, assistant director at PARD, said the 2016 Parkland Dedication Ordinance set a target level of service but HB 1526 reduced local dedication requirements and changed when fees are collected. "HB 1526 changed the collection time to certificate-of-occupancy, which delays the investment of these funds by an average of five years," Karibuka said. The delay, staff estimated, will create a short-term funding gap of about $15 million to $20 million per year for up to five years.

Karibuka and other staff said the ordinance change reduced the proportional share of park service provided by new development: staff estimated PLD now covers roughly 12% of the city’s 24-acres-per-1,000-people goal in suburban areas and as little as 0.3% of that target downtown. Scott said the department previously matched each dollar of bond funding with about $0.33 in PLD fee revenue, which has made bond dollars go further.

PARD described land banking — buying land now to hold for later development — as a way to save public funds over time because land values rise. Staff presented an estimate, using Travis County appraisal data, that buying land now could save about $150 million compared with waiting 10 years to invest. PARD also provided several operational figures: the 2018 bond has funded more than 100 acres and 30 parks; parkland can sequester roughly 1 to 1.85 metric tons of carbon per acre per year depending on tree cover; and staff gave example cost ranges for establishing and maintaining land while banked.

Evergreen Austin’s Messino and board member Judy Plummer compared Austin’s situation to other Texas cities that also lost or saw limits to PLD revenue. Messino reiterated a request for annual public reporting and a heat-map tool to track canopy and park access by neighborhood. "If people can't stroll through these areas, they aren't really parks, not to the people," Messino said, arguing that golf courses and passive water-conservation tracts can look green on a map but do not deliver the same cooling and access benefits.

Councilmembers in the meeting asked for public-facing, zoomable data. Councilmember Ellis asked whether the map was available as an ArcGIS layer; PARD staff said a PDF would be posted and that they could provide more zoomable data on request. Aguirre and PARD staff encouraged city departments to coordinate acquisitions with other goals — affordable housing, multimodal transportation, watershed protection and recreation centers — and flagged Southeast Austin as a priority location for a future recreation center based on the department’s 2024 facilities assessment and gap analysis.

The committee and speakers noted cross-benefits for climate, public health and economic value near parks. PARD staff reiterated that acquisition priorities will focus on neighborhood and pocket parks to increase walkable access, greenbelt gap closures to extend trail corridors, and larger destination or recreation sites where feasible.

Votes at a glance Approval of minutes — Motion to approve minutes by Councilmember Siegel; second by Vice Chair Ellis. Motion approved (no roll-call tally provided in the record).

What’s next PARD said it will share presentation materials and a map PDF and invited participation in bond task-force discussions as the department and other city offices refine 2026 bond asks and funding strategies.