Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department will hold a public open house meeting this Saturday on a proposed master plan update for Town Lake Park – Auditorium Shores/Butler Park. Some parks advocates, meanwhile, are wondering why PARD is reopening the planning process instead of funding the master plan that’s already in place. They’ve long contended that PARD has been taking bond and car rental tax money that’s supposed to be dedicated to park improvements and instead using it for Palmer Events Center maintenance and operations. Also controversial is the design team selected to develop the master plan – TBG, whose last proposal for the area was for the ill-fated, privately funded Bloch Cancer Survivors Plaza.

Should make for an interesting meeting at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd., Saturday, Dec. 3, 1-4pm, with a “brief presentation on the project history, goals and opportunities” at 2pm. See www.austintexas.gov/parks/auditoriumshores.htm for more info.

This article appears in December 2 • 2011.

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