City of Austin seeks more funding strategies for parks

AUSTIN, Texas - Austinites could be paying more in the future to fund city parks. The city says they're not meeting some goals to expand and maintain them. 

Last week, City Council passed a resolution calling on the city manager to explore more funding options.

The City Council adopted the "Our Parks, Our Future Long-Range Plan" in 2019. The 10-year plan seeks to improve standards, including acquiring between 4,000 and 8,000 acres of new parkland.

Council Member Alison Alter (District 10) says despite lots of progress on parks, more needs to be done. 

"We have a growing population, and we need to increase access across the city. We have areas that are park-deficient," she said.

One of the benchmarks in the plan is to make sure everyone in the community has access to a park within a quarter or half mile. The city has moved from 65 percent to 72 percent of community members meeting that benchmark. Alter also says the city has invested in aquatics facilities and cultural centers.

"We're making a lot of investments, but we currently have parks that are loved and need more maintenance, need more service levels. We have people who want to have a pocket park in their neighborhoods so that they can walk with their kids and don't have those yet," Alter said.

When it comes to servicing parks, city staff looked at how often restrooms, trash cans, and grass were being maintained earlier this year. 

"We took some action on that to improve that during the budget period when we added 16 maintenance workers," Alter said.

At that point, they weren't even at 2014 levels of maintenance. 

"Now, with the additional 16, we are, but we still need another 50 some to get to what might be a more ideal maintenance and service level," Alter said. "We're not going to get to those service levels overnight in terms of having that number of workers."

The Parks and Recreation Department largely relies on the General Fund, which is a limited resource. Plus, the state legislature recently cut parkland dedication fees.

"16 maintenance workers was about $1.5 million of ongoing money and then some one-time money, so it's not inexpensive to do that," Alter said. "Our bond is exhausted, and the parkland dedication fees are not accessible. We will do another bond in '25 or '26."

At last week's City Council meeting, members voted for the city manager to explore more funding strategies. 

"I'm hoping this resolution will help find a steady source of funding so we don't have to choose between critical needs and maintaining our parks," Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool said during the meeting.

Funding options could be in the form of park districts, public-private partnerships, park user fees, or tax increment financing.

"There will be some costs at some point. Exactly what those are we don't know," Alter said. "We shouldn't forget that we have done a really good job with what we've had, but I think there's a demand and a desire to see more."

The resolution says the city manager should report back to council in spring 2025 on additional funding options.