North Central Austin Edition | January 2026

From the cover

Austin faces diminished parks growth

BY BEN THOMPSON

Parks access Austin’s level of per-resident park service has slipped.

The context

The overview

City goal of parkland acres per 1K residents Actual parkland acres per 1K residents

Much of Austin lacks the parks access residents and city planners desire. Less than 18.5 acres of parkland were available per 1,000 residents as of late 2025, 77% of the city’s goal. That gap equates to a need of roughly 5,700 acres, or almost 9 square miles. The parks department estimated about 70% of residents are not in walking distance from public green spaces. City mapping shows many neigh- borhoods remain “parks decient” based on that metric, most notably in North and East Austin, and around the city’s fringes. Grantham said recent strides have been made. More than 1,100 park acres have been acquired since 2020, with a focus on decient areas, resulting in almost 200,000 people seeing their access increase.

City requirements on developers rose through the 2010s and early 2020s, when developers had to donate land or pay fees equivalent to 9.4 park acres per 1,000 residents. Limitations under House Bill 1526 went into eect in 2023. The bill targeted cities of 800,000 people or more, and lawmakers referenced Austin in their statement of intent, citing rising dedication fees and housing costs as a threat to economic growth. This forced local ocials to approve new rules at a fraction of pre-2023 levels based on location—most signicantly downtown, where dedication values are more than 100 times smaller than under past policy. At the time, former council member Alison Alter said HB 1526 “gutted” the city’s system. “We were originally appropriating in the neighborhood of $20 million in fees through parkland dedication [annually], and now it has been reduced to about $2 million,” Grantham said.

0 15 20 25 30

SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTINCOMMUNITY IMPACT

“We make our best eort, and we try to hit every council district,” he said. “We are actively trying to acquire land in areas that are not well-served by parks—areas where people currently, today, cannot walk to a park.”

Parks bond breakdowns Austin’s parks bonds have traditionally funded open space acquisitions.

The approach

$149M

The parks department is using available dollars to build out Austin’s network of open spaces. Most recently, that included $45 million of the nearly $150 million 2018 parks bond. The com- munity is now looking ahead to another bond, potentially for voter consideration this year, that could include a new green space funding. An initial $3.9 billion project list for a bond was released last year with $100 million for park acqui- sitions. On Jan. 21, a reduced proposal was released for a $700 million bond, with $40 million for acquisitions out of $140 million in total for parks. Approving more land acquisition dollars today is critical and cost-eective for growing Austin’s parkland, according to the parks department. It estimates $100 million of current investments would save $150 million over the coming decade due to property appreciation.

Not land acquisition Share for land acquisition

Annual parkland payments State law hampered Austin’s ability to maintain past levels of parkland dedication.

$104M

Total bond amount

Annual appropriations

Projected

$84.7M

$77.7M

$75.9M

FY 2022-23

$26.1M

$64.2M

$72.1M

FY 2023-24

$41.1M

$17.4M

FY 2024-25

$20M

$23.4M

$45M

FY 2025-26

$34.9M

$7.5M

$20.5M

$20M

$5.6M

FY 2026-27 $1.1M

2012

2018

1992*

1998 2006

SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTINCOMMUNITY IMPACT

* 100% OF 1992 BOND WENT TO LAND ACQUISITION NOTE: 2026 BOND TO BE DETERMINED SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTINCOMMUNITY IMPACT

Going forward

connections. We are doing so with fewer tools, and we’re doing so with less funding,” he said. “I’m hopeful that we can get more tools and explore creative options and, let’s be honest, receive more funding.”

package should be delayed. For now, Grantham said he’d like to be optimistic about more support in the future. “We are still acquiring parkland, we are still building new parks, and we are still making

City sta and a resident commission are still working to develop a nal list of funding priorities for a 2026 bond. However, Austin’s tight nances also led some ocials to recently question whether the time is right for the city to take on more debt, or if a comprehensive bond

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