Zilker Park Working Group

On June 20, 2018, the City of Austin Environmental Commission passed a motion with recommendations relating to traffic, parking and environmental issues that arose as a result of the proposed Austin City Limits staging and parking area along Stratford Road over the closed Butler Landfill.

On June 28, 2018, City Council passed a resolution to form a stakeholder group to address several issues related to Zilker Park:

traffic and parking
the Stratford Drive/Bulter Landfill area used for ACL staging
the Polo Field (the “temporary” parking area across Barton Springs Road from the Botanical Garden)
a Master Plan for the park

The stakeholder group members were known as the Zilker Park Working Group (ZPWG). Three members of the ZNA Executive Committee were on the ZPWG, although they represented different interests. Bruce Wiland (ZNA Treasurer) represented the Zilker Neighborhood Association, Gail Rothe (ZNA Vice President of Parks and Environment) represented City Council District 5, and James Russell (ZNA Secretary) represented the Trail of Lights Foundation and Austin Kite Festival. The City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD), Watershed Protection Department (WPD), and Transportation Department (ATD) provided some limited support.

Final Recommendations

The ZPWG set a policy to strive for consensus, and it was exhaustively attempted. While consensus was reached on Short-term Traffic Solutions, there was no concensus reached on the Butler Landfill or the Polo Field. In the Full Group, only the votes to adopt the Short-term Traffic Solutions Subgroup recommendations and to recommend that PARD immediately eliminate the Stratford Drive junkyard (aka "the boneyard) west of Mopac were unanimous. ZNA made a motion to have PARD/C3 remove the unpermitted non-compliant rock layer from the Butler Landfill and revegetate the site by the summer of 2020 (as previously demanded by WPD), but this motion failed by a small margin. ZNA joined with Barton Hills Neighborhood Association, Save our Springs Alliance, the Council District 5 Representative, and the Council District 7 Representative to issue an alternate recommendation to the Final Recommendations passed by the Full Group.

Two-Page Summary Presented at ZNA Quarterly Meeting [29 Jul 2019] (<1 MB PDF)
Final Report Transmittal Memo from PARD to City Council [14 Jun 2019] (<1 MB PDF)
Full Group Final Report [14 Jun 2019] (5.3 MB PDF)
Full Group Final Report Appendices [18 Jun 2019] (15.3 MB PDF)
Full Group Final Report Backup Material [18 Jun 2019] (<1 MB PDF)
Alternate Joint Recommendations adopted by Barton Hills NA, Zilker NA, SOS, Council Districts 5 & 7 [04 Jun 2019] (1.5 MB PDF)

Subgroup Recommendations

Only Subgroup B (Short-Term Traffic Solutions) was able to provide concensus recommendations that were adopted by the Full Group. Subgroup C (Polo Field) could not reach a general consensus, but did provide recommendations to the Full Group. Subgroup A (Stratford Drive/Butler Landfill) evaluated numerous plans but was so divided that it ultimately could not produce any recommendations to the Full Group.