Council Notes

Last week, the City Council approved the pictured design of Town Lake Park. The plan's most controversial aspect was narrowing the 1,000-foot stretch of Riverside running through the park from four to two lanes.
For a larger image download this pdf (about 3MB).

The city has big plans for Town Lake, and no, it didn't stop with the removal of the trenchant "Eminem Is God" graffito branding one of the trestles above Austin's waterway. In 1999, council approved a Town Lake "master plan" calling for the creation of a 54-acre park bordered by South First, Dawson Road, Barton Springs Road, and Town Lake. Three years later, council approved a directive calling for narrowing the segment of Riverside Drive that runs through the park, and asking for study on the practicality of closing that portion of the street altogether. From the beginning, the proposal was not simply a traffic question. Parks and neighborhood advocates wanted the road closed as a way of expanding the parkland and making it more pedestrian-friendly, while opponents, mostly from the business community, argued that, in light of the city's traffic problems, closing any Downtown street is a bad idea.

The eventual result was an uneasy but presumably settled compromise, calming park traffic by halving the lanes from four to two – initially approved by the City Council in 2002. Thursday, the council stood slated to approve the contracts, but not after being surprised by renewed, and protracted, discussion and disagreement – mainly, whether to proceed, or to call for yet more study on the impact of the changes. What might have been a pro-forma morning approval abruptly mutated into a two-hour debate on and off the dais.

Parks and Recreation Director Warren Struss spoke in support of speeding the project along, stating, "a troubling new fact has entered the picture" – primarily that construction costs are "much less friendly" than when the directive for narrowing Riverside was initially approved. Jeff Jack, president of the Austin Neighborhoods Council and a longtime park stakeholder with the South Austin Neighborhood Association, gave another reason for adopting the plan – that it had already been studied within an inch of its life. Jack cited a traffic analysis before the master plan was implemented, showing a mere seven-second delay, followed by two subsequent studies "essentially saying the same thing" … that narrowing a thousand feet of Riverside has "no significant impact." Also under discussion together with the park plan was conversion of Cesar Chavez into a two-way thoroughfare, in part to accommodate Riverside's narrowing.

The opposition was represented before the council by Jim Knight, president of the Real Estate Council of Austin, who argued that the city "is starving for east-west roadways," and that there had not been enough consultation with everyone affected. His position was echoed from the dais by Council Member Jennifer Kim, who suggested that the Riverside segment of the project could be separated out for further study.

"We spent seven years working on this; I think that we are at the point of decision," Jack responded. Council Member Brewster McCracken argued that any more foot-dragging on the Riverside decision would create a ripple effect – delaying Riverside construction until after completion of the Long Center, and keeping parking, plus new hike-and-bike trials, in suspension indefinitely. Council Member Raul Alvarez also defended the lengthy process that lay behind the park project, adding that he was "surprised at how much time" was being spent to debate what was "seen as a compromise itself."

Kim and Betty Dunkerley initially stood together in opposition – Kim echoing RECA's concerns over the narrowing of the arterial street, and ex-city financial officer Dunkerley sweating the cost. In the end, Dunkerley proposed a substitute motion to approve the Cesar Chavez and Town Lake plans, minus the Riverside squeeze-play – but that went down to defeat, 5-2. The council then approved the plan as presented, with Dunkerley joining the majority and Kim – resplendent in a peach and pink tunic collar jacket more Queen Amidala than Place 3 – continuing to set her own rebellious course in Austin's miniature version of the Intergalactic Senate.