Parks staff drop a citywide plan to rezone parkland, saying it costs too much. Treviño Park was rezoned
A 2025 council resolution asked for a multi-year effort to zone city parks as public land. Staff now say they will rezone parks one at a time, only when a project needs it.
Austin's parks department has told the council it will not carry out a multi-year process to rezone city parkland across Austin, one of two things the council asked for in January 2025. The first, rezoning John Treviño Jr. Metropolitan Park in East Austin, is done.
The Oct. 21 memo from Parks and Recreation Director Jesús Aguirre closes out the resolution. For residents, the question is what protects a park from other uses. Many city parks sit on land zoned for homes or businesses rather than the "Public" (P) district the city uses for civic land.
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What the memo says
- Treviño Park. The 330-acre park at 9501 FM 969 was rezoned for park and recreation use on July 24, 2025, meeting the first part of the resolution.
- Citywide rezoning. Staff reviewed options and decided a citywide effort "would not be efficient or financially feasible," citing staff time across several departments and notification costs beyond current capacity.
- The new practice. Parks will rezone a property only when a specific development or redevelopment project needs it. Staff say many existing zoning categories already allow park operations, so a citywide effort is not needed.
The memo calls itself the close-out of the resolution. No council vote is required for staff to close it.
What our records add
The council asked for both, unanimously. The resolution passed on consent on Jan. 30, 2025, 11-0. Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison was the lead sponsor, with Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez and José "Chito" Vela co-sponsoring. Its title directed the city manager to rezone Treviño and to "prepare a process" for rezoning other park property over several years.
The Treviño rezoning. The council rezoned the park to Public on all three readings on July 24, 2025, 11-0. The case was city-initiated, and staff and the Zoning and Platting Commission recommended it.
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Why Treviño keeps coming up. The park sits near the Dog's Head area east of the city, where the council created a tax increment zone this year. During the council's May debate over the Dog's Head development agreement, a representative of the developer called a road line on an early concept map "purely" conceptual and said a new exhibit would instead stop it at the edge of Treviño Park. Two days later, the revised exhibit moved that road to the side, council members were told. Parks staff also cited Treviño to the Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee in July as an example of land banking, meaning buying land before development reaches it. Our Dog's Head story covers the Nov. 5 vote on sharing that zone's revenue with parks and housing.
Not the only close-out this month. Housing staff also closed a council resolution without the action first requested, declining to pursue cooperative housing for seniors, as we report today.
What's next
A council member who wants the citywide effort could bring a new resolution or seek money for it in next year's budget. Otherwise, park rezonings will come to the council one case at a time. Questions go to Ricardo Soliz, park planning division manager, according to the memo. Treviño Park is in District 1, where voters pick Harper-Madison's successor Nov. 3; our District 1 story has the race.