Mayor Kirk Watson is abandoning his proposal to scale back Austin’s ambitious plan to build parks over Interstate 35 after failing to win enough City Council support.
Before withdrawing his proposal Wednesday, Watson sought to significantly reduce the scope of the city’s long-debated “cap-and-stitch” program, which would build public park space and other amenities over portions of I-35 through downtown. He canceled a City Council vote slated for Thursday on the smaller design, admitting he could not gather enough support for the change after a Tuesday work session on the topic.
The mayor’s proposal would have funded one complete park deck for $49.8 million instead of spending $104 million to begin — but not finish — several decks across Central Austin as the Texas Department of Transportation expands I-35 and lowers it below ground. Watson said his latest proposal would represent a compromise between reconnecting East and West Austin, exercising fiscal discipline and giving residents a usable amenity once TxDOT’s project is complete.
“Because of the timing and requirements for financing and the previous council division, I felt some obligation to bring this item forward in hopes of finding a compromised approach,” Watson wrote in a Wednesday memo to the City Council. “It doesn’t appear the proposal will achieve the necessary majority, but I’m glad we had the conversation.”
Watson proposed fully building a 160-foot-wide cap over the interstate at Palm Park, “creating a complete land bridge from the park to the East side.”
The park, at I-35 and East Third Street, is being revitalized as part of the larger Waterloo Greenway project. Watson’s plan also called for supports for a potential future cap between 11th and 12th streets.
With Watson’s plan withdrawn, the cap-and-stitch program will move forward as the City Council approved it in May 2025. Council members committed to paying for columns to support three large decks, or “caps,” and two smaller pedestrian bridges, or “stitches,” over I-35. The caps would cover the interstate from Cesar Chavez to Fourth streets; Fourth to Seventh streets; and 11th to 12th streets. The stitches would be near 41st Street along Capital Metro’s Red Line railway.
The columns would allow the city to build out the decks in the future, but there were no immediate plans to do so.
The cap-and-stitch issue has long been divisive among council members, and the mayor’s latest proposal proved no different. Council members Mike Siegel, Krista Laine and Marc Duchen supported Watson’s downsized plan, but council members Chito Vela, Ryan Alter, Natasha Harper-Madison, Zo Qadri and José Velásquez came out against the proposal. Council Member Paige Ellis did not publicly take a position, and Council Member Vanessa Fuentes remained on maternity leave.
City leaders say the cap-and-stitch program is intended to reconnect historically segregated East Austin with downtown, improve mobility and create more space for recreation and tourism. Opponents of Watson’s proposal said the value of that reconnection outweighs concerns about the project’s cost.
“I understand the desire to spend less money,” Vela said during the work session. “But I think we get to a situation where you don’t want to be penny wise and pound foolish, where we’re going to do something to say we did something that actually does not bring any value to the area.”
Meanwhile, the University of Texas has plans for its own cap over I-35 from 15th to Dean Keeton streets, separate from the city’s project. The university did not immediately return a request for a status update on the project.