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A man runs on the bridge that connects the hike and bike trail to the Confluence, a trail along lower Waller Creek. The Waterloo\u00a0Greenway recently opened 13 acres of restored parkland along the creek.<\/p>\n
Mikala Compton\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Fifty years ago,\u00a0Austinites set out to give the nation something extraordinary: a city where residents could walk or bike from their front door, through a corridor of trees and flowing water<\/a>, to Town Lake. That vision became Austin\u2019s bicentennial gift to itself and to the United States.<\/p>\n The proposal, called Austin Creeks<\/a>, was produced by Austin\u2019s Horizons \u201976 Committee. It positioned the city\u2019s creeks as infrastructure. Eighteen creek corridors radiating from the Colorado River would form a continuous network, enabling children to reach school without crossing traffic, adults to commute along tree-lined trails, and families to visit libraries and markets on foot or by bicycle.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The creeks were not decorative. They were the city\u2019s circulation system.<\/p>\n Attention to the creeks was not new. In 1839,\u00a0Mirabeau Lamar sited the Texas Capitol between Shoal Creek and Waller Creek. Austin\u2019s major city plans, from Koch and Fowler in 1928 onward, depicted the creeks as a unified greenbelt.\u00a0But by the bicentennial, the creeks were newly recognized as an inheritance, an opportunity and a responsibility.<\/p>\n The analysis and planning were led by architect\u00a0Sinclair Black and his students at the University of Texas. Black had earlier studied Austin\u2019s creeks and urban design under a National Endowment for the Arts research grant. The work moved quickly. Within two years of the City Council\u2019s million-dollar appropriation in 1974, Austin had completed trails along Shoal, Boggy and Blunn Creeks and begun redevelopment of Waller Creek. A 1975 bond election added nearly $8 million more for creek-related parkland.<\/p>\n RELATED: A forest in downtown Austin? Inside Waterloo Greenway\u2019s new Confluence<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Some of the Austin Creeks vision has come true, and some is finally coming true. The Waterloo\u00a0Greenway recently opened 13 acres of restored parkland<\/a> along Waller Creek, including a biofiltration pond that manages stormwater and improves water quality. At Pease Park, riparian restoration is underway with the Shoal Creek Conservancy.<\/p>\n These achievements are worth celebrating, but they underscore how long some promises took to keep. Waller Creek was described in 1976 as having \u201ctremendous economic potential\u201d comparable to the San Antonio River Walk, yet it remained a neglected flood channel for most of the intervening 50 years. Progress came this century<\/a> through a combination of investments: in civil engineering to make development feasible, in landscape architectural design to make development desirable, and in a public-private partnership to make development achievable.<\/p>\n A cyclist rides along the Shoal Creek Trail. Some of the Austin Creeks vision has come true, and some is finally coming true, Allan W. Shearer writes.<\/p>\n Mikala Compton\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n The report also warned that Shoal Creek faced being converted into nothing more than a concrete drainage pipe without upstream retention. It was a warning not heeded until serious damage had been done<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The plan\u2019s core argument was simple: creek corridors must be acquired before development arrives, when land is cheap. \u201cThere is probably no single act that could have more overall positive impact on the future suburban environment,\u201d the report stated. That remains true, but it understates the benefits.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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