AUSTIN, Texas — The city of Austin is close to an agreement with the University of Texas at Austin that would give the city ownership of Lions Municipal Golf Course, the historic public course known as Muny, city officials said Wednesday.

The City Council will consider the deal at its Nov. 19 meeting as part of changes to the Brackenridge Development Agreement. That 1989 agreement between the city and the university sets terms for how UT may develop the land it owns on both sides of Lake Austin Boulevard.

“Our community has been working for more than 50 years to save Muny,” Mayor Kirk Watson said. “That work and our strong partnership with the University have paid off.”

The course opened in 1924 on more than 140 acres of UT land along what is now Lady Bird Lake. The city took over the lease in 1937 and has run the course ever since. That lease expired in 2019, and the course has operated under short-term extensions since then.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Lions Municipal Golf Course turns 100 with long term future still in doubt

In 1950, Muny became the first public golf course in the South to integrate, according to the city. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a civil rights landmark. It is the busiest public course in Austin, hosting more than 75,000 rounds of golf a year.

The land sits in one of West Austin’s most valuable areas. The parcels under the course were valued at $680 million in 2024. Supporters have spent years trying to keep it a public course as the university looked for ways to make money from the property.

Besides transferring the course, the proposed amendments would lay out a general process for:

Updating the university’s lease of property at MuellerExchanging city rights-of-wayCreating a tax increment reinvestment zone, which sets aside future growth in property tax revenue in an area to pay for improvements thereDeveloping a regulating plan both sides agree on to guide development

City staff will brief the Environmental Commission and the Planning Commission this month. If the council approves the amendments in November, staff will spend the following months preparing the tax zone and the regulating plan. Those pieces would go through city boards and the council in spring 2027.

“Development in this special area, along Lady Bird Lake, must be thoughtful and executed with the deepest care,” City Manager T.C. Broadnax said.