 This Monday night, May 22nd, at City Hall, the Austin Parks Board will hear public testimony and make a recommendation to City Council on the proposed Zilker Park Vision Plan (aka Zilker Entertainment District Construction Plan). Please sign up to speak in advance here and be there with us to tell the Parks Board to Save Zilker Park and Barton Springs from this terrible “vision” for our public park. If you cannot be there, or you sign up to speak remotely, you can watch the Parks Board meeting live here. It’s much better to be there in person: it's more fun and the Parks Board will see us all there in force. Walk, ride your bike, take a bus, or carpool. There’s free public parking under City Hall (enter the garage from the west side, on southbound Guadalupe). Bring friends and family too!! See more details by viewing presentation HERE. You don’t want to miss this special night of local democracy in action!! Please know the overwhelming public opinion is against the City consultant's recommended plan and in favor of our Rewild Zilker Vision Plan. We have an amazing citywide poll that shows this beyond any dispute. Watch this KXAN news report about the key points from the poll. While you are at it, tell Mayor Watson and the Austin City Council that you oppose the City consultant’s draft plan and that you support the Rewild Zilker coalition plan. You can copy and paste into the “to” line the City Council and key council staff email addresses here. TO: kirk.watson@austintexas.gov, natasha.madison@austintexas.gov, vanessa.fuentes@austintexas.gov, jose.velasquez@austintexas.gov, chito.vela@austintexas.gov, ryan.alter@austintexas.gov, mackenzie.kelly@austintexas.gov, leslie.pool@austintexas.gov, paige.ellis@austintexas.gov, zohaib.qadri@austintexas.gov, alison.alter@austintexas.gov, jesus.garza@austintexas.gov CC: kate.alexander@austintexas.gov, alexis.garcia@austintexas.gov, john.lawler@austintexas.gov, jason.lopez@austintexas.gov, sofia.morales@austintexas.gov, yuri.barragan@austintexas.gov, timothy.bray@austintexas.gov, michael.mcgill@austintexas.gov, thomas.mcgregor@austintexas.gov, atha.phillips@austintexas.gov, julie.montgomery@austintexas.gov, melissa.beeler@austintexas.gov, natalie.deller@austintexas.gov, kurt.cadena-mitchell@austintexas.gov, joi.harden@austintexas.gov Brodie Oaks PUD too big, too little open space – Please consider also telling Mayor Watson and the City Council that the proposed redevelopment of the Brodie Oaks Shopping Center at South Lamar and Ben White should be scaled back to better protect Barton Creek and to comply with the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan. City Council should also require the developer to acquire offsite, undeveloped mitigation land upstream in the Barton Creek watershed to mitigate the much higher redevelopment impervious cover (56%) that would be allowed above the SOS ordinance standard of 15% impervious cover. SOS supports the proposal to reduce existing impervious cover, add over 10 acres to the Barton Creek Greenbelt, and treat the runoff from the proposed redevelopment. We also support a major increase in density at Brodie Oaks. Currently the site holds 360,000 square feet of commercial development. However, the proposed redevelopment calls for almost ten times more development – 3.2 million square feet of commercial, multifamily, office, and hotel space. This would include skyscrapers over 250 feet tall. Our City’s comprehensive plan contemplates mid-rise development at this site – a level of density that supports public transit while protecting this unique site above Barton Creek. Council is set to vote on “second reading” on this project (Items 62 and 63 on the agenda).  Senior Administrative Assistant/Office Manager Must have proven experience and proficiency in data entry and operating database systems, basic Quick Books skills and other office management software. Will need experience or willingness to learn assisting with large event coordination. Position is part-time (20-25 hrs. week) with flexible hours. Potential full time would include additional duties. Candidates should be passionate about protecting Barton Springs and the natural and cultural heritage of Central Texas. Salary commensurate with experience. Save Our Springs Development and Membership Coordinator Save Our Springs Alliance seeks a full time Development and Membership Coordinator to grow our base of donors, volunteers, and activist supporters. Please submit a current resume and cover letter to sosinfo@sosalliance.org Candidates for the position should be passionate about protecting the natural and cultural heritage of Central Texas. Pay is commensurate with experience, performance, and the Austin market, with the opportunity for regular pay increases. SOS offers health care and retirement benefits to all of its full time employees. We seek someone who is creative, self-motivated, and entrepreneurial, and who is committed to working with SOS staff, board members, and volunteers to grow the organization and its influence. Candidates should have a healthy mix of some of the following areas of knowledge, skills and experience: *A proven track record of growing a nonprofit donor/member support base, preferably in the field of conservation, environmental justice, and/or public health. * A working knowledge or educational background in marketing, sales, environmental advocacy, environmental science, environmental policy, communications, or journalism with some knowledge of the land, water, and wildlife conservation issues of Central Texas. *Membership development through email, text, social media, direct outreach, and/or events. *Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including advocacy writing grant and direct mail writing, social media, and video. *Project management, volunteer management, and/or public speaking experience. Save Our Springs Alliance does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, national origin, disability, religion, or sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity).  Please Note the following updates and correction: You can participate in the Tuesday, May 16th Zoom Meeting at 7:00 p.m. here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85327754325 The Flash Mob with community leader Diana Prechter at City Hall will be held on Thursday, May 18th at 11:30 am (not Wednesday as previously reported) The May 22nd Parks Board Meeting at City Hall starts at 6pm. Please arrive early for sign-making and group planning. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Do you love Zilker Park and Barton Springs? If so, you likely know about the City consultants’ draft $200 million-plus construction plan in Zilker Park $200 that would convert our much loved public park into a privately controlled outdoor entertainment district. As proposed, the plan would threaten Barton Springs and the natural, historic, and cultural resources of the park while doing nothing to save the Barton Springs watershed before its too late. It would also drain limited funding away from our other City parks that need investments and basic funding for swimming pools, trails, and recreation facilities. It’s hard to overstate how terrible this draft plan really is. And because there is soooo much money to be made exploiting our flagship public park, this terrible plan will be approved if you don’t join with us in telling our city officials “no thank you!!” and “we prefer to rewild Zilker Park and keep it public!” We need your help and attention next week and in the weeks thereafter to Save Zilker Park! Specifically, the Rewild Zilker coalition invites you to: --Join us Tuesday, May 16 at 7:00 p.m. for a zoom call update and training in preparation for speaking to the Austin Parks Board on May 22 and to Austin City Council later this summer; --Wednesday, May 18, at 11:30 a.m. at City Hall, join with Austin community leader Diana Prechter and her Flash Mob to specifically protest the proposed construction of 3 parking garages in Zilker Park; and -- Monday, May 22nd at 5:30 p.m. attend the Parks Board meeting at City Hall and tell them in your own words what Zilker Park means to you and what you want for the future of our flagship park. Learn more here and recruit your friends and family to be part of saving our park and springs.  Speaking of Zilker Park -- Real Austin Rides Again!!Monday night May 22nd may have been a turning point. People who love Austin, Zilker Park, and Barton Springs filled the City Council Chambers -- and the City Hall Lobby and part of the plaza outside. A few hundred people. Almost all of them were there to tell the Austin Parks Board to ditch the City consultant’s draft plan to convert Zilker Park into even more of a private profit machine than it already is. Overwhelmingly the people of Austin want Zilker Park – and all our parks – to simply be parks. Public parks. Public parks that belong to all of us. Places to connect with nature, play outside. Places with trails, swimming pools and natural waters, shade, ball fields and birds. Parks large and small to escape the stress and concrete of city life. How do we know that’s what people want for our parks? Because that’s what residents from across the city have told the Parks Department over and over in recent years. A recent poll of residents from across all of Austin confirm this beyond any doubt and to a startlingly high degree of consensus. And then we have what we-the-people told the Parks Board Monday night, all evening long, in heartfelt and too-short speeches, in songs, chants, and poetry. If you weren’t there, take some time to watch it here. You won’t be disappointed. The best reality tv was real Austin last Monday. Don’t have time to watch it all? Catch Austin music legend Chris “Whipper” Layton speaking here or community leader Daniela Silva or David Weinberg. Sure, we love the occasional special events that make our parks places to party, hear great music, celebrate sad sack donkeys and other beloved creatures. If Eeyore had been there Monday, he would have said “Wish I could say yes, but I can’t.” We wish the City had brought forward a “vision plan” that we could say yes to. But they haven’t. To quote a former Parks Board Member, “this plan has less vision than an Austin Blind salamander.” They have ignored the public and the City’s own Our Parks Our Future Long-Range Parks Plan. They have tossed aside our Austin Climate Equity Plan and Strategic Mobility Plan by calling for massive concrete construction projects, including three parking garages that would make Zilker Park even more car dependent than it is today. Why would they do that? Because there’s just soooo much money to be made at Zilker Park. More private events. More private concessions. Year around concerts in a new five thousand seat amphitheater. Old school park concessions? Forget that. The plan envisions destination restaurants licensed by a private “umbrella” manager. And the prize for Barton Springs Conservancy leader Mike Cannatti? – a grand beer garden for year around drinking. The $60 million-plus parking garages are not for park users or Barton Springs swimmers – we didn’t ask for them. They are for paying customers. Thankfully, the public is not having any of it. Or, to be accurate, about 85% of the public is not having it. Of the few people speaking in favor of the draft plan Monday night almost all of them were employees or board members of the for-profit and nonprofit entities doing business in Zilker Park. We now need your help more than ever. The Parks Board majority endorsed the plan with three members voting against. But the city council makes the final decision. Mark your calendar for Thursday, July 20th when the Austin City Council will consider the proposed Zilker Park Vision Plan. The only way they change course is if we show them how much Austin really cares with the biggest crowd ever at city hall. Between now and then tell your friends and family to save July 20th for a historic night at City Hall. Keep up with these SOS email news alerts; sign up for Rewild Zilker updates; and join us for upcoming walk-and-learn and swim-and-learn gatherings at Zilker Park. And if you are able, donate today to Save Our Springs Alliance.  Park Plan NOT at Parks Board this Evening: Contrary to the previously announced schedule, the Parks Board will not consider the Zilker Park Vision Plan at its meeting tonight. The plan will be up for further consideration by the Parks Board at a subsequent meeting. We will let you know as soon as we know. In the meanwhile, please stay (or get) informed on the issues and plan to attend future meetings of the Parks Board and City Council when the plan is considered. The Rewild Zilker webpage has the best collection of information. You can still email the Parks Board on this issue. See the addresses on the Rewild Zilker webpage and on the SOS website here. Lawsuit Filed to Block $354 Million Taxpayer Giveaway to Lady Bird Lake Developers: Today Taxpayers Against Giveaways, Save Our Springs Alliance, former Texas State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos, former Austin City Councilmember Ora Houston, and Allandale neighborhood homeowner Faye Holland filed suit against the Austin City Council to block the diversion of $354 million in future property tax collections away from the city's general fund into a special fund to subsidize an estimated $8 million of ultra-luxury high rise development slated for the south shore of Lady Bird Lake. “The South Central Waterfront TIRZ is an enormous waste of taxpayer money, a blatant case of insider developer welfare, and a gross abuse of the tax increment financing statute," said Laura Cantu Templeton, a board member of Taxpayers Against Giveaways. While a small portion of the $354 million would fund affordable housing, the city can best fund affordable housing and other city priorities through standard city budget processes. Don't be fooled by this smokescreen. The bulk of the money would pay for parking garages, streets, sidewalks and other facilities that every other developer must pay on their own as the standard cost of doing business. The funds would also help pay for a party boat dock, an elevated boardwalk over the lake, and private development on what should be green, protected lakefront public park land. The lame duck Adler City Council approved the South Central Waterfront Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone at one of its last meetings in December 2022. The current city council has no obligation to fund it. The lawsuit filed today seeks to make sure that it does not. READ THE LAWSUIT AND MORE ON THE CASE HERE AT THE AUSTIN BULLDOG. DONATE TO SOS Save Our Springs Alliance 4701 West Gate Blvd, Building D, Suite 401 | Austin, Texas 78745 (512) 477-2320 | sosinfo@sosalliance.org Follow Us Unsubscribe or Manage Your Preferences  The Parks Board meets April 24th at City Hall. Please join us there before 6 pm to speak or just show support. View the slideshow below for all the details you need!It is the last stop before we go to the City Council. The Zilker Vision Plan team will be looking to get a whole hearted approval for this terrible plan. We are hoping to make sure that doesn’t happen and the vision is changed to one that is more nature-based and less commercialized. Show up, wear light blue or green so when they look out in the audience they are constantly reminded of the blue water of the springs and the green grass on the great lawn that are at risk! Come, even if you don't speak so they can see you in the audience watching! If you email, please send it as early as you can so the Commissioners have time to take in your opinions.  Zilker Zoom Wednesday; Parks Board April 24thZoom training call April 19, 11am: SOS will host another zoom meeting led by Tanya Payne with Rewild Zilker! We will answer questions and help you formulate ideas for speaking. The link to attend the meeting is HERE. We have t-shirts available for sale, sizes M, L, XL & 2X for $20. Please email Garrett@SOSAlliance.org if you want to come pick one up at our office or at the pool on our tabling days. See all the details on the Zilker Vision Plan journey from our friends at Rewild Zilker below! Dear Rewilders, You are amazing and are having an impact!!! We are now in the part of the process that involves Boards and Commissions. And your showing up at the meetings and sending in email letters is making all the difference! They hear you and they are requesting changes to the plan! Next up: Parks Board April 24, 6pm City Hall This is the "BIG ONE" for us. It is the last stop before we go to the City Council. The Zilker Vision Plan team will be looking to get a whole hearted approval for this terrible plan. We are hoping to make sure that doesn’t happen and the vision is changed to one that is more nature-based and less commercialized. Show up, wear light blue or green so when they look out in the audience they are constantly reminded of the blue water of the springs and the green grass on the great lawn that are at risk! Come, even if you don't speak so they can see you in the audience watching! If you email, please send it as early as you can so the Commissioners have time to take in your opinions. Date: Monday April 24 Time: 6pm Location: City Hall Sign up to speak: Email Tim.Dombeck@austintexas.gov. They don't have a form up yet. Zoom training call April 19, 11am: Our own Rewilder Tanya will be leading a zoom call with SOS to help you formulate ideas for speaking and to answer questions. Join Zoom Meeting - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84898249679 Hope to see you there! Here are their emails: BC-Nina.Rinaldi@austintexas.gov bc-pedro.villalobos@austintexas.gov bc-nicole.merritt@austintexas.gov bc-kathryn.flowers@austintexas.gov BC-Lisa.Hugman@austintexas.gov BC-Nancy.Barnard@austintexas.gov BC-Kim.Taylor@austintexas.gov bc-holly.reed@austintexas.gov stephanie@stephaniebazon.com Jennifer Franklin (new member, assigned by CM Zo Qadri) no email yet While you are emailing, perhaps consider emailing the City Council here. You could copy and paste from your notes to the Parks Board. Our expectation is that they will review this plan, so the sooner they start hearing from you, the better. Here are some requests to consider asking them for. Please use your own words. We hear Commissioners get tired of getting the same emails. 1. Keep the umbrella non-profit out of the plan. They voted to keep it out of the plan the last time it went before the Parks Board, do it again! We need accountability and transparency not further commercialization. Also, the environmental commission joined them in removing the umbrella non-profit and the design commission recommended the umbrella be audited! 2. Join the Design Commission and remove the Azie Morton garage - it is too close to Eliza Springs and requires a traffic study because it's at the intersection of two small roads. 3. Also join the Design Commission in removing the underground parking garage - it is located in the confluence of 3 major watersheds and digging that deep into them is sure to cause damage. 4. Remove any garages OUT OF THE PARK onto already paved areas. 5. Remove the Hillside Theater from the Great Lawn. 6. Require that 75% of the “ecological uplift” be switched to rewilding for better water protection, climate mitigation and shade. 7. Remove the Welcome Center (we already have one and don't need another!) 8. Support the internal and external shuttles as well as trails, bike/ ped and transit. 9. What you love to do in the park! For more background, here is a matrix of the Rewild Zilker Recommendations that you can attach or refer to. What's happened so far?! Parks Board #1 (March) Voted to pass the plan with the removal of the Umbrella Non Profit because it has the potential to increase privatization and commercialization in the Zilker Park. Here is the resolution. Note: The Collective - an assemblage of commercial operators in the Park (both profit and non-profit), shortly after went ahead and announced their umbrella non profit Zilker 351 anyway. Does this seem desperate and disrespectful to you?! Environmental Board (April) Voted to pass the plan with a list of 20 conditions, you can see them in the resolution here. At that Board meeting 3 former Board and Commission members spoke up to support our Rewild recommendations! And, a new folk hero emerged - Commissioner Rick Brimer - who did over 100 hours of his own research into the plan, led the meeting with dozens of questions, conducted a master class on interrogating the staff presentation and has been at every board and commission meeting since. Thank you Commissioner Brimer! Urban Design Commission (April) The “Designers", as we affectionately call them, took aim at the parking garages and the Hillside Theater, removing the underground garage (that is inexplicably located in the confluence of 3 major watersheds), the Azie Morton garage (dangerously close to the Springs) and protecting the Great Lawn by moving the Hillside Theater as well as recommending the Umbrella non-profit be audited. Their resolution has not been published yet, but we'll share it when we see it. So do you see a pattern? Each Board and Commission is “approving” the current plan but adding substantial conditions that make the plan much stronger and more ecologically balanced. They are doing this in large part because you are educating them, showing up, making your opinions known and that is essential to our work. We are making progress but have a ways to go. If you plan to attend Earth Day, we have Rewild Zilker stickers for you to hand out as you walk around - ping us and let us know if you'd like some! Thank you so much for your help. We appreciate all that you do for Zilker Park. Sincerely, Your Wild Rewilders www.rewildzilker.org  Environmental Commission Update from the Rewilding TeamSo many of you showed up to speak and your speeches were SO GOOD! They brought many of us to tears. We cannot overstate our gratitude to be in this fight with you. We simply couldn't do it without you. Thank you, thank you. We were also unexpectedly joined by four powerful women advocates including three legendary former City of Austin Commissioners and a recently named Rising Star (we can see why!)
The Environmental Commission listened closely to our concerns (staying past 12am!) and gave us a couple of big wins:
The Zilker Vision Plan still has to go to the Design Commission (still not scheduled) and then back to the Parks Board for final approval April 24. The Consultants say then it's off to the City Council in late Spring, early Summer. With Gratitude, Your Wild Rewilding Team _________________________________________________ Please mark your calendars for April 24th Parks Board Meeting. We will need a strong showing! We will have another community zoom meeting leading up to it. We will send details next week. The Environmental Commission staff is still working on the final recommendations and the complete video of the meeting. We will let you know when they are available but they will be posted in the next few days HERE. The meeting video is complete until 11:50 pm when the recording stopped but you can still watch the amazing speakers and most of the comments from the Commissioners. Very informational so please try to watch.  On Monday night the people spoke!! While most speakers were limited to 1 minute, the message was loud and clear: restore and rewild Zilker Park, save Barton Springs, and send would-be construction dollars to benefit other Austin parks that have been neglected for too long.
If you were there, thank you!!! If not, the video of the meeting is posted here. And the Parks Board did hear us. Claims from the for-profit and nonprofit operators that do business in Zilker Park that the public engagement process was extensive and honest was thoroughly debunked by Parks Board member and attorney Sarah Faust and by many of the speakers. Because of your actions, the Parks Board voted 6-2 to recommend the removal of the Zilker Park umbrella management organization from the Vision Plan! They agreed with all of us that an umbrella management organization would reduce transparency and accountability by putting the park in the hands of corporate donors and their whims at the expense of everyday park people. While these for-profit and nonprofit park concessioners do much good work – renting boats, producing programs and events, and providing other services – many of them free to the general public – they showed their true colors last night. In doing so, they made it abundantly clear they should never be trusted with operating in Zilker Park behind the curtain of a “single point of contact” private, umbrella park manager. These groups, led by the Austin Parks Foundation, which receives $8 million per year from ACL/Live Nation – money that should be going to the City—along with the Trail of Lights Foundation, the Zilker Botanical Garden Conservancy, Zilker Theater Productions, and others are joined together as the “Zilker Collective.” Their representatives proclaimed how wonderful the public engagement process for the plan really was. Indeed, it was truly great . . . for them. They enjoyed 5 or more private meetings with the City’s consultant and got everything they wanted to support their money-making ventures. Parking garages, new venues for year around money making, a bridge over Lady Bird Lake so ACL/LiveNation can expand their mega-event to park land north of the lake. What a great process!! And guess what? There is zero evidence from the “extensive” public engagement that the public has even the slightest interest in transforming Zilker Park with the $200 million-plus of “improvements” baked into the draft plan. Indeed, the consultants haven’t bothered to compile or even consider the public input, much of it distorted by “push poll” questions about building expensive entertainment facilities rather than restoring and protecting the park and Barton Springs. We give special thanks to Parks Board Chair Laura Cottam-Sajbel for making the motion and to Board member Sarah Faust for bringing the truth about the sham public process into the light. The revised draft plan is now available here. The draft will be considered by other boards and commissions in the weeks and months ahead going to the city council. Interested in learning more?? Join us this Sunday at 10:00 a.m. outside the back gate of Barton Springs (off of Azie Morton) for a walking tour of the eastern part of Zilker Park. We’ll have maps and other information on the draft plan. And urge friends and family to sign up for these email news alerts to stay informed and stay connected. |
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