{"id":28950,"date":"2025-10-31T04:50:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/28950\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T04:50:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:50:20","slug":"muny-golf-course-preservation-efforts-in-austin-extended-another-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/28950\/","title":{"rendered":"Muny golf course preservation efforts in Austin extended another 2 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA decision on the preservation of Lions Municipal Golf Course, or Muny, was given yet another extension amid years of debate<\/a> over the property by Austin, The University of Texas and local stakeholders.<\/p>\n

The big picture<\/p>\n

For decades, the city has leased the UT-owned golf course for public recreation. The popular spot is nationally recognized<\/a> as one of the South\u2019s first desegregated golf courses, but its future has remained uncertain as Austin and UT have sought to reach a deal over the site\u2019s use or possible sale.<\/p>\n

“><\/p>\n

Austin continues to lease Muny from the university for less than $500,000 annually to operate as a public golf course. But UT previously signaled<\/a> intentions to redevelop some or all of the property that’s now appraised at more than $680 million, and is one of several it owns in Austin under an early 1900s land gift requiring the sites to benefit the university.<\/p>\n

Muny\u2019s high price tag likely puts it out of reach of an outright purchase by the city or through private conservation efforts<\/a> led by local golf figures and advocates. And 2021 civic rezoning<\/a> of UT\u2019s tracts to set standards for possible future development, prompted by a stalemate with Austin over how the university could use its land, ended up stalling out. The course\u2019s outlook has also drawn attention at the state level.<\/p>\n

Then-state Sen. Kirk Watson forwarded legislation<\/a> in 2019 that created the Save Historic Muny District<\/a> to work with other entities on the course\u2019s preservation by May 2021. However, lawmakers have had to repeatedly extend the district’s lifespan given a lack of local progress toward a result. After extensions in 2021 and in 2023<\/a>, a bill<\/a> from state Rep. Donna Howard passed this year pushed its dissolution date to May 2027\u2014which some lawmakers said could be the district’s final deadline.<\/p>\n

What they\u2019re saying<\/p>\n

In an October statement, a city spokesperson thanked Howard for her legislation and said Austin’s discussions with UT are continuing. Howard previously called the yearslong process a \u201cdifficult negotiation\u201d that\u2019s taken longer than anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that there\u2019s still a sincere effort to try to make this work. So we just need the extension of time to hopefully make sure that that does happen,\u201d she said during a March Texas House hearing.<\/p>\n

SHMD Chair Ken Tiemann also called the process difficult given the desire to reach a \u201cwin-win\u201d for UT and Austin and said he’s still hopeful for a positive outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe value of 141 acres in West Austin, it frankly would be the largest historic preservation from a financial standpoint possibly ever. … It\u2019s complex, and I think the value of the land, nobody wants to make a mistake,\u201d he said in March.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decision on the preservation of Lions Municipal Golf Course, or Muny, was given yet another extension amid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,8625,19608,4129,19606,19605,19607,27,293],"class_list":["post-28950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-donna-howard","tag-ken-tiemann","tag-kirk-watson","tag-lions-municipal-golf-course","tag-muny","tag-save-historic-muny-district","tag-texas","tag-texas-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}