The Deal That Saves Muny Also Draws the Map for Lake Austin Boulevard

"Today we've been able to announce that we have come up with a good, clear path," Mayor Kirk Watson told reporters on Oct. 14, according to Community Impact. He was talking about Lions Municipal Golf Course, which Austinites have been trying to secure for more than 50 years.

The path he described has two parts. It is an amendment to the 1989 Brackenridge Development Agreement, the interlocal agreement that governs how UT can use its land on both sides of Lake Austin Boulevard. Moving Muny to city ownership is one part of that amendment. The other part sets the terms for future private development on the university's remaining 190 acres. That land holds the Lake Austin H-E-B, the CVS, the 7-Eleven, the LCRA headquarters and the Oyster Landing businesses, including Mozart's and Hula Hut.

For Tarrytown, the golf course is the headline. The development terms are what will shape the boulevard's everyday errands for years to come.

What the donors are actually paying for

Muny opened in 1924 on more than 140 acres of university land. The city took over the lease in 1937 and has run the course ever since. In 1950 it became the first public golf course in the South to integrate. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a civil rights landmark, and the city counts more than 75,000 rounds played there each year. The Statesman reports that the lease expired in 2019. Since then the city has kept operating the course on land it doesn't own.

A few numbers show what kind of problem this is. Community Impact reports that Austin pays UT just under $500,000 a year to lease the course. The 155-acre property that includes Muny and the West Austin Youth Association campus is appraised at more than $680 million. A lease payment can't close that gap, and decades of efforts have failed to close it. Those efforts include a 2009 UT System proposal to redevelop the entire Brackenridge tract densely, Muny included, and a 2021 city rezoning effort that stalled.

Donor money is what closes it. Watson said several longtime Austinites "stepped up to contribute a very large amount of money" to UT. That contribution would let the golf course go to the city and the nearby WAYA campus go to the West Austin Youth Association, as Axios Austin reported. The donors haven't been named, and the amount hasn't been disclosed. Watson told the Statesman the plan is "intended to preserve Muny forever," and that the greenspace could be kept "really, at no cost to the taxpayer."

Community Impact describes the trade directly. The donations would keep Muny an 18-hole course "while opening the university's surrounding land for future development."

The land on the other side of the agreement

The Brackenridge tract came to UT through philanthropist and former regent George W. Brackenridge in the early 1900s, on the condition that it benefit the university. Today the university-owned land along Lake Austin Boulevard looks like this, and each piece sits in a different place under the proposal.

According to Community Impact, UT hasn't settled on any development plans for the remaining acreage. The public proposal doesn't name individual businesses or address their leases. The grocery store, the coffee shop on the water and the Tex-Mex patio all sit on land the regulating plan will govern, and no one has said what will happen to them.

Three numbers already on the table

The city has already posted the parameters any future private development would have to meet. They are on its Brackenridge Tract page:

• Height: buildings capped at 65 feet when viewed from Lake Austin Boulevard
• Impervious cover: limited to 75 percent sitewide
• Shoreline: a 200-foot setback from Lady Bird Lake

These limits tell residents what the edge of the boulevard could look like before any project is drawn. The height cap is measured from Lake Austin Boulevard, which makes the view from the street the standard. The 200-foot setback keeps a band of shoreline out of new construction. Because the 75 percent cover limit is sitewide, the open space could be concentrated in some places and the buildings in others.

Two other items in the package matter for how this land changes. One is a proposed Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, which Community Impact describes as tax increment financing to pay for new infrastructure. The other is a "mutually agreed regulating plan" that will spell out the rules for future residential and retail projects. The package also includes items from outside the neighborhood: an updated UT ground lease at Mueller and an exchange of city rights-of-way on UT campuses.

City Manager T.C. Broadnax put it this way in the city's announcement: "Development in this special area, along Lady Bird Lake, must be thoughtful and executed with the deepest care."

The calendar from here

Nothing is final yet. The Muny transfer and the development framework go through the same sequence, and the details for the boulevard come later than the golf course decision:

1. October 21 and 27: Briefings were scheduled for the Environmental Commission on Oct. 21 and the Planning Commission on Oct. 27.
2. November 19, 2026: City Council takes up the amended Brackenridge Development Agreement.
3. UT Board of Regents: The regents must also approve before the transfers are final.
4. Early 2027: If council approves, staff will bring the regulating plan back to both commissions for review.
5. Spring 2027: The regulating plan and the TIRZ go through the boards and commissions process and back to council.

The November vote decides Muny and sets the framework. The plan that turns the 65-foot cap and the 200-foot setback into specific rules for the land under the H-E-B and Oyster Landing comes months later, after more public review.

Who has spoken so far

So far, nearly all public reaction has been about the golf course. Muny Conservancy co-chair Scotty Sayers called the announcement "an extraordinary day for Muny and for the entire Austin community." Co-chair Ben Crenshaw described Muny as "a piece of Austin's heart and soul." Both urged supporters to keep pressing council ahead of Nov. 19, according to the conservancy's release. Ken Tiemann, chair of the Save Historic Muny District, told Axios Austin the group stands ready "to ensure that Muny's history, green space and public access are protected." District 10 Council Member Marc Duchen told CBS Austin that Tarrytown residents' support for saving Muny is evident and that he hopes his colleagues will work to make the deal happen.

The conservancy has also said what comes after preservation. Once the course is secured, it plans to work with Coore & Crenshaw on restoration and improvements and to build a teaching center about Muny's integration history. The fifth Imagine Muny Gala on Sept. 10 raised $1 million, with performances by Tanya Tucker, Asleep at the Wheel, Jack Ingram, Wade Bowen, Dale Watson and the Copa Kings, as Tribeza reported.

Playing Muny while the votes happen

The course is operating as usual under the city's GolfATX program. Online reservations for weekday tee times open at 9 a.m. seven days ahead. Weekend reservations open the preceding Monday at 8 p.m. These are the city's listed rates, in effect since Oct. 1, 2025:

The city lists a single sunset-round rate of $28.

The Muny Conservancy's events calendar lists course closures. This month the course closed for overseeding Oct. 6–7 and for maintenance on Oct. 19. Checking the calendar before booking is the easiest way to avoid a closed course.

If council approves on Nov. 19 and the regents follow, the city will own the course at 2901 Enfield Road for the first time since play began there in 1924. The rules for the H-E-B, Mozart's, Hula Hut and the rest of the boulevard will be written in the spring 2027 regulating plan.

If you'd like to talk through what the spring 2027 regulating plan could mean for your stretch of Tarrytown, Cord Shiflet Group is glad to share what we're watching as the votes approach. Work with Cord.