Additional Park Funding Exploration

Austin Parks and Recreation sought community input on additional funding sources for parks management, land acquisition, amenities, facilities, and maintenance in alignment with City Council Resolution No. 20241121-072. 

Background

Over the past decade, the City of Austin has acquired 96 additional parks and more than 1,500 new acres of land, for a total of roughly 15,200 acres maintained Austin Parks and Recreation Department (APR). Funding for park planning, development, and maintenance has not been able to keep up. The need for additional parkland will continue to grow as the City’s population does. Recognizing the increasing gap, Austin City Council passed Resolution No. 20241121-072 on November 21, 2024, directing the City Manager to convene a team of City staff that may include members from the Parks and Recreation Department, Financial Services Department, the Law Department and other departments in the City Manager's discretion, to explore additional funding sources for parks management, land acquisition, amenities, facilities, and maintenance. In addition, Council recommended enlisting the assistance of external consultants with expertise in park system funding to advise the staff team on funding methods to sustain and expand the available funding for Austin's parks, as well as establishing a means of comparing funding methods used by other park systems in Texas, and in other states, and providing financial scenarios to compare funding options along with any opportunity costs.