City of Austin, UT Austin close to preserving Muny

It's 102 years of Austin history, carved into 141 acres alongside Lake Austin Boulevard. The Lions Municipal Golf Course, known as Muni, first opened in 1924, on more than 140 acres of University of Texas-owned property along what is now Lady Bird Lake. The city took over the lease for the course in 1937 and has operated it ever since. But it sits on University of Texas land, so there was no permanent solution for making sure the golf course was saved in perpetuity. Until now. Under a proposed agreement, the City of Austin would take over ownership of the Lions Municipal Golf Course from the university. This decision would preserve the open public green space and historic public course. Scotty Sayers is a longtime Austinite and co-chair of the Muni Conservancy, which was created to preserve and improve the course. Some donors have proposed giving money to the university in exchange for the university giving the land to the city of Austin with the stipulation that it remains an 18-hole golf course on 141 acres in perpetuity. So that assures that future generations of Austinites, especially young people, will get to play that golf course. The deal would be part of amendments to the 1989 Brackenridge Development Agreement. That's the agreement between the city and university That laid out terms of how the university could use the land it owns on either side of Lake Austin Boulevard for private development. The concern in preserving the golf course has always been that it sits on a very valuable piece of real estate. We know that real estate prices in Austin, especially commercial real estate, has gone up in value. Beyond preserving Muni, the proposal also establishes a planning framework between the city and UT for future development between the Bracken Ridge Tract. The city says the deal also includes proposed updates to the university's Mueller property lease, exchange of city rights of way, a potential tax increment reinvestment zone, and a mutually agreed regulating plan. It's a 102-year-old piece of green space that's very important to the city that's got a civil rights history. In 1950, Muni became the first public golf course in the South to integrate, allowing people of color to play. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a civil rights landmark. Today, it's Austin's most used public course, logging more than 75,000 rounds played annually. And the Muni Conservancy is hoping to keep that going for generations to come.