Wednesday, July 15, 2026, 9:30 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee
The Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee met on July 15, 2026, with Chair Alter and Vice Chair Ellis present along with Council Members Siegel (virtually) and Duchen. The committee approved minutes from the May 18, 2026 meeting without opposition. It received briefings on: proposed amendments moving special-event permitting for parks from Chapter 8 to Chapter 4-20 under the Austin Center for Events/ACME; hydrilla management in Lake Austin and a potential Lake Austin drawdown conducted with LCRA; and the Parks and Recreation Department's parkland acquisition process and the $50 million dedicated land acquisition fund. Staff indicated the special events ordinance would come back to Council on July 23, and that a decision on the drawdown is expected within a month. Two members of the Austin Resource Management Commission testified urging changes to the Texas Gas Service franchise agreement, including a 25% markup on the Houston Ship Channel benchmark and required leak detection.
0:05 Hey everybody. It is 9 31 on Wednesday, July 15th.
0:12 I'm gonna call this meeting of the climate water environment parks committee to order.
0:17 Uh, we have a quorum present.
0:18 We are in City Hall chambers, uh, at 3 0 1 west second street, and I believe we have a
0:26 couple public speakers this morning.
0:27 So we'll start there.
0:29 Yes, sir. We have two, uh, paul robbins first and then allison silverstein.
0:46 Counsel. Uh, I have incontrovertible evidence that Austin will be under collecting franchise revenue, uh, from large texas
0:58 gas service customers in the new franchise agreement.
1:02 And I have emailed this to you using documented figures from 2025.
1:08 The under collection would've been over half a million dollars that would otherwise go to the city's general
1:16 fund. It's not a secret that the city is facing a budget shortfall, and it is unfair to
1:22 expect residential and small commercial customers to pay this fee without large customers getting a discount.
1:31 While you mean while, excuse me.
1:32 While large customers get a discount, the resource management commission, uh, suggested, uh, recommended a way to fix
1:42 this. We suggested a multiplier of 25% to adjust, uh, to the default houston ship channel benchmark that
1:54 they're using. Uh, and that would be lower than the real cost of gas.
2:00 Again, please refer to the proof that I sent you, uh, on your email.
2:06 Uh, when I brought this, uh, recently gathered evidence to the attention of the city comptroller, she did
2:13 not seem to care much.
2:15 Her reply was that the city asked for this change in the franchise term and the company would
2:21 not relent. The reply seemed passive aggressive like we asked.
2:26 It's not our fault.
2:29 After the franchise reading that passed City Council, the first reading Council Member Alter and uchin stated three
2:38 goals that they wanted for changes.
2:41 Members of our commission went into gear.
2:44 The next day. We were given a deadline less than two in, of less than two days to
2:50 submit recommendations. We met the deadline and recommended eight changes that were revenue neutral that would achieve council
2:58 goals. Texas gas surface accepted only one and would not agree to the rest.
3:05 And rather than hold out for more city staff bolded council, I am, but a humble vice chair
3:14 of an advisory commission.
3:17 But I do know more about this issue than most people in the city.
3:23 I'm gonna make two suggestions.
3:25 First, delay the third reading of the franchise agreement until August or September 2nd.
3:33 Reserve the next committee meeting this committee to hold open negotiations with texas gas service.
3:41 Have the company publicly explain why they want to give discounted franchise fees to large customers.
3:48 Have the company explain why they refuse to fund leak safety detection in homes that would be completely
3:57 paid for with tariffs.
4:05 Thank you, mr. Robbins.
4:18 Good morning members. I'm allison silverstein.
4:20 I also serve on the Austin resource management commission.
4:23 Thank you for your service on the council.
4:26 I'm here to affirm and echo mr. Robbins on the need and value of adding a provision to increase
4:31 the franchise fee on texas gas service to 1.25% of the houston ship channel 125% of the houston
4:39 ship channel gas price.
4:40 Not a hundred percent as it is today.
4:42 There's a significant difference between this houston ship channel wholesale price and the total fees, the total gas
4:50 price that is paid by Austin customers.
4:53 And by moving this up to, so, so right at the end of last year, it was like
4:57 $3 versus $8. We are proposing that you not do that full amount, but that you only do
5:03 a 25% markup on the houston ship channel price.
5:07 This would be worth an additional $200,000 a year in franchise fees, which I'm sure you guys could
5:13 find something useful to do with.
5:15 Um, second, I recommend strongly that you require texas gas service to conduct leak detection activities, detection, remediation
5:26 analysis, and reporting. This is an important matter of public safety as well as an important element of
5:32 greenhouse gas reduction in closing, just because texas gas service doesn't wanna do these, do these things, doesn't
5:39 mean that they're not in the good of Austin.
5:40 And it doesn't mean that the city of Austin should fold in the texas gas service franchise fee
5:46 negotiations and agreement. So I strongly encourage you to, it's not like they're gonna walk away from serving
5:52 the city of Austin.
5:53 It's one of their largest customers.
5:55 So I strongly encourage you to, to, um, go back and, and ask for an additional 25% markup
6:02 on the houston ship channel fee and to require leak detection activities, remediation and reporting.
6:08 Thank you. Thank you very much.
6:12 Alright, members, with that, we will move on to item number one, which is an approval of the
6:19 minutes from the May 18th, 2026 meeting.
6:22 Do I have a motion to approve this motion by, uh, Council Member uchin vice chair, or seconded
6:27 by vice chair Ellis?
6:29 Uh, without opposition, the minutes are approved.
6:33 Uh, we'll now move to item number two, which is a briefing on amendments to city code related
6:40 to the Austin arts, cultural music and entertainment, or acme managing permits for special events that occur at
6:48 certain parks. And with that, I see director means and her team, uh, Council Member al Alter.
6:59 If you could just acknowledge I'm here virtually.
7:01 Thank you. Perfect act, uh, let the record reflect that Council Member Siegel is in attendance and has
7:07 supported our motion for approving the minutes.
7:21 So your way. Good morning everyone.
7:24 My name is again, is angela, means I'm the director of arts culture, music and entertainment department.
7:29 And I'm here with my team to give you a briefing on the proposed ordinance updates for the
7:35 special events in our city parks.
7:38 I'm with me is ms.
7:40 Erica shamali, who is the division manager of our music and entertainment division.
7:46 We also have mr.
7:47 Josh jacobs, who works within that division for the special events task, the special events, uh, team.
7:54 We also have ms, um, morgan messick, who is the assistant director.
7:58 So we have a presentation for you that we'd like to walk you through, uh, with the direction
8:03 that you all provided to us the last time you saw us.
8:06 So I'm gonna turn it over to erica.
8:11 Hello, council members erica shial, music and entertainment division manager with Austin arts culture music and entertainment.
8:18 Uh, thank you for having us today.
8:21 All right, so we're gonna just show you an example of one of the beautiful events here in
8:26 Austin. This is one of the watch parties for world cup, and it was a, you know, a
8:32 wonderful, wonderful day. Uh, but how did we get here?
8:36 The timeline to get to this point with you today for an update?
8:41 Uh, the parkland events task force, uh, met in 2015, uh, spent many months working towards just issues
8:47 around our core downtown parks, zilker, auditorium shores, fiesta gardens, uh, and also, you know, talked about, about
8:55 looking ahead of where our future, you know, locations are for potential events here in Austin.
9:02 A lot of, uh, recommendations came out of that task force, including adding, um, recurring events into the
9:09 ordinance in chapter eight, which is the parts ordinance.
9:13 Uh, and so at that point, I don't think it's been updated since.
9:18 Um, but in 2018, uh, this office of special events, uh, was formed and put into chapter four
9:27 20. And then acme was founded in 2025 in February.
9:33 So those three milestones lead us to today, which is to move, um, all of the special events
9:40 park related, um, ordinance into chapter four 20 with Austin center for events, which is part of acme.
9:47 And, um, and so we're very glad to be with you today to kind of take you through
9:52 those updates. All right, so we did come to you in May, May 7th, uh, with a draft of
10:01 a, uh, ordinance update.
10:02 And, uh, we received a motion to actually do a couple more things before you guys considered the
10:09 actual updates. So we wanted to issue an open invitation to current stakeholders, large scale event producers, uh,
10:17 park our partners to, uh, give us the input on the actual updates to see what they think
10:24 and if there were any additional things to talk through.
10:27 Um, and then we were supposed to come back here today, July 15th.
10:32 And then if all goes well, we'll be at July 23rd with the update.
10:37 Uh, for your consideration, we were also told to please, um, release the request for applications for auditorium
10:46 shores, which we did.
10:47 It was posted May 22nd, it closed June 11th, it was scored on June 12th, and notifications were sent out June 26th.
10:57 So what is the problem being solved?
10:59 Um, we just wanna be sure that it's very clear to both city staff, departments and community, uh,
11:06 roles and responsibilities and who's doing what.
11:09 So, with the limits staying in chapter eight and parks, it's somewhat confusing when we could easily move
11:16 them to that whole section into the Austin center for events section and chapter four, to make it
11:22 very clear to both community event producers, um, our park partners as well as to city staff.
11:29 Um, you know, the roles and the responsibilities related to special events in parks.
11:34 If we were to leave the ordinance as is, it would cause confusion.
11:38 Um, it would, uh, we would a back and forth of who does what.
11:42 And so we wanted to be sure to make it extremely clear, not only to community, to our
11:47 event producers and to our park partners, uh, but to staff across all departments and to City Council
11:53 of, uh, who does what and who's responsible.
11:58 All right. I'm going to hand it off to josh jacobs for this next slide.
12:03 Good morning. Uh, so for the meetings that were held, these are the general topics that were covered.
12:11 Uh, the event, a limits, um, remaining the same.
12:15 Uh, for the sites that are under event day limits, the event day transfers, uh, we just tightened
12:23 up the language a bit to try to keep, uh, you know, folks who are awarded a, uh,
12:31 a location to keep them from being able to sell off or lease those off.
12:37 Uh, the non-reoccurring events, um, the language exists already in the code, but we are, um, adding multiple
12:45 days to give the city manager authority to do up to 25 days above the 17 limit, uh,
12:54 multiple days if a city manager chooses to do so.
12:57 Uh, the definitions, um, as we're moving to different code, uh, we wanted to maintain the public recreation
13:05 area, uh, as defined in, uh, chapter eight and, uh, the city facility, um, to reflect the public
13:13 recreation area rather than parkland.
13:15 Um, and then we updated the definition for a legacy event, or rather, that was not changed, that
13:20 was addressed early on, but, uh, that was maintaining that 20, um, and, and no changes made to
13:27 that. The, uh, official event roster, just cleaning that up to reflect what is currently happening in Austin.
13:36 Um, removing events that no longer occur, uh, cleaning up the names and the number of days of
13:42 which they happen so that the public can see clearly what's happening, um, what's not changing.
13:48 As we mentioned, the, uh, the, the day limits remain the same.
13:53 Um, and a pr continues to manage the park only events.
13:58 Uh, and, uh, and acme would be managing the special events.
14:03 Um, and, uh, and ace remains the permitting authority with events.
14:08 Uh, so, um, the competitive process this is, is has always existed.
14:13 Um, just carrying this over that should the city manager choose if one of these locations falls under
14:20 the event day limits, that city manager May choose to present a competitive process to fill those dates.
14:28 Okay. So what's changing, as josh just mentioned, um, we, we are, uh, it maintains the multi-day non-recurring
14:36 events allowed. So this gives city manager the, uh, you know, the flexibility of, uh, proving, uh, non-recurring
14:44 multi-day events rather than single day events.
14:48 Um, this is great in terms of having more flexibility for all kinds of events that serve our
14:54 community. And, um, and it also fits well too with the use of the park of where it
15:01 is already with the recurring events as well as our first amendment, uh, events.
15:08 Um, we are adding an adjustment to the dragon boat race event from a, uh, multi-day event to
15:15 a single day event.
15:16 It has been operating like that for several years.
15:19 And again, we want the ordinance to reflect what's actually occurring.
15:24 And so that is part of the update.