On August 12, Austin City Council approved the city’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2026-27, roughly one month after the initial draft was released. While headlines focused on the citywide total, us park-goers and trail users want to know one thing: What’s in the Budget for our Parks, Pools and Trails? Austin Parks and Recreation Department (APR) funding is …
After more than two years of planning, task forces and a few rounds of postponement, Austin’s parks bond is officially headed to voters! On August 6, 2026, City Council formally called a November 2026 bond election, placing a $260 million parks package on the ballot. If you’ve been following along since our January blog post, you know this process has …
We’ve been keeping a close eye on Austin’s 2026 General Obligation Bond process since we first broke it down for you back in January. Since then, we’ve tracked the Bond Election Advisory Task Force’s recommendation, watched City Council begin its deliberations, and cheered on the park advocates who showed up to speak. Now we have a new chapter to share, …
In January, we published our first overview of Austin’s 2026 General Obligation Bond process and explained why a robust parks bond is long overdue. A lot has happened since then: The Bond Election Advisory Task Force (BEATF) completed its recommendation to City Council on May 4th. City Council is now in the driver’s seat and the window to advocate for …
The City of Austin is most likely holding a General Obligation Bond Election in November of 2026. The last bond election that the city had was in 2022, and the last bond election that included parks was in 2018. Usually, Austin Parks and Recreation Department relies on bond elections every six years, but it will have been eight years between …
THANK YOU! Thanks to all of our efforts, Austin City Council voted in favor of a FY25 Budget that includes 16 new full-time positions for park maintenance, 4 new full-time positions for homeless encampment response within park maintenance and the creation of a land acquisition fund! This is a major win in our effort to ensure that we have a …
Austin Parks Foundation and other outdoor organizations are sensitive to the nature of this budget year being tight and have respectfully limited our PARD budget ask to the most pressing, equity-centered and community-supported needs. Like in years past, PARD’s most pressing need for the FY25 budget is adequate staffing to maintain parks, recreational and cultural centers, and pools. We ask …
Updated March 21, 2024. Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1526 into law on June 10, 2023. Going into effect on January 1, 2024, this new law dictates how local parkland dedication (PLD) ordinances can be used in Texas cities with populations over 800,000 (Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Dallas). This bill has effectively gutted future Parkland Dedication. …
Early voting has begun in Texas and there are three measures on the ballot critical for funding parks in Travis County and across the state of Texas. Austin Parks Foundation is proud to endorse both Travis County bond proposals, as well as the proposed Prop 14 amendment to the state constitution. These measures will provide much needed support for not …
Austin Parks Foundation and Barton Springs Conservancy received a grant from Austin Together to go through a facilitated process with 17 groups that operate and offer programming in Zilker Metropolitan Park to figure out how we can better work together. These groups collectively offer so many resources and experiences to Zilker Park’s visitors! Some of the partner organizations include the …
