The development of Town Lake Park began in the 1960’s following the completion of the Longhorn Dam. Prior to the dam being built, the southern edge of the Colorado River was barren and eroded from floods that plagued the river south of Tom Miller dam. The stabilized lake edge provided by the Longhorn Dam made a public park space viable in this area. A visionary team called the Town Lake Beautification Committee was formed and spearheaded by Lady Bird Johnson. Lady Bird and her colleagues sought to beautify the lake edge with a trail and park improvements so that residents and visitors could enjoy nature in an urban setting for years into the future. See more history here.

In 1998, City of Austin residents voted in favor of a bond proposition (prop 11) which allocated tax dollars from car rentals towards the creation of the Town Lake Park Master Plan. Since the adoption of the master plan in 1999, two phases of construction have been completed.   Palmer Auditorium was built in Phase I and Phase II work resulted in the green space known as Butler Park (hill, pond, and water element due west of Palmer). Remaining space to be redeveloped is the area known as Auditorium Shores and the Bottomland Woods.

Today, redevelopment efforts have stalled and the bottom-line is funding.

1998 bond election (short-term motor vehicle rental car tax or prop 11) may or may not have had it’s funds – all or a portion – accurately directed in the manner in which voters approved the bond – to the park land and the parking garage.

In 1998, the voters authorized a tax on rental cars in the city to fund the construction of the Palmer Events Center, its parking garage, and Town Lake Park.  In 1999, the City obliged agreed to fund park construction to a total of $18.5M in 1999-valued dollars and on a schedule that would have had the park totally completed by 2008.  In 2010-valued dollars, the portion of that funding that has not been delivered, indexed by the standard PUBCON inflation index for public construction cost from the dates it was originally to have been made available, is approximately $18.27M. 

The total park construction budget was estimated at $23.5M in 1999 dollars, with the $5M difference to be provided by private contributions.  To date, over $1M of private contributions have been made, and another $2M are pending finish-out design.  We anticipate continued philanthropic contribution to the park development.

Although the cash flow from the car rental tax would have been sufficient for the City to fully meet its park construction funding obligation on the original schedule, the money to have done so (over $12.3M as of FY 2007-8) was redirected from the bond authorized by the voters to the operations and maintenance budget for the Palmer Events Center.  O&M for Palmer Auditorium was traditionally funded by the bed tax, but that money has not been made available for the Palmer Events Center.  Hence the delays and cost-cutting that have left the park half developed.

In late 2007 the City offered to make $7M available to "finish the park".  Out of this, the park's landscape architects, TBG Partners, were given a design contract to develop to this level. As the park is a venue project, its development is not funded by General Fund tax dollars, nor may the car rental tax revenue be expended anywhere else. One purpose of the current public process is to assess whether this level of funding would be sufficient to complete the park according to the desires of the community, or whether more resources from the car rental tax should be devoted to realizing the vision of Town Lake Park.

January 19, 2010 - Phase III - TLP Redevlopment Meeting - 3 redevelopment components in the Town Lake Park complex - 1) Children's Garden (within Butler Park area), 2) redesign of east end parking and new restrooms, and 3) creation of a formal "dog park."

January 11, 2010 - Added parking, new restrooms and a "interactive childrens garden" coming to Town Lake Park.