Zilker Park Plan Postponed: South Shore Lawsuit Filed

 

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.  
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READ THE LAWSUIT AND MORE ON THE CASE HERE AT THE AUSTIN BULLDOG.
 

 

 
 

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Save Our Springs Alliance
4701 West Gate Blvd, Building D, Suite 401 | Austin, Texas  78745
(512) 477-2320 | [email protected]

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