Petit Park

New 'pocket park' spiffs up land in South Austin

Scenic Brook Pocket Park is on less than an acre of land.

Photo courtesy of Austin Parks and Recreation

A new "pocket park" is almost ready to be unveiled in southwest Austin. Scenic Brook Pocket Park, located at 7300 Oak Meadow Dr., will debut in a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday, September 23.

The plan for Scenic Brook Pocket Park has been in the works since its first concept plan in 2019 (which was approved in 2020), and the ribbon cutting marks the completion of the first phase of development. The plan does not share how many phases the park will undergo by the time it is fully complete, but the important part for most visitors is that they can visit now.

Before it was a park, the area was "approximately 0.89 acres of undeveloped parkland," according to the project page on the City of Austin's official website. It also records that the land was previously used as a private community playground, pool, and garden before it was deeded to the city in 2016.

Despite a longer planning process, the park was only under construction for about a year, from summer of 2024 to summer of 2025.

Important updates to the site include changes in walking accessibility, seating, trails, and play equipment, plus an overall site restoration. The city page points out that although a basketball court had been part of the original plan, it could not be achieved "due to environmental restrictions." It emphasizes that the goal was to make the park more " safe, accessible, and usable."

Notably, this park is located along a tributary of Williamson Creek, and much of it is located in a Critical Water Quality Zone, eventually running off into Barton Springs.

Austin has had a busy spring and summer for parks, including renovations for the kid-led Metz Neighborhood Park, the Colony Park Pool, and a new bicycle traffic garden for teaching the rules of the road coming at Parque Zaragoza. Each were funded through different avenues; the Scenic Brook Pocket Park was funded through Parkland Dedication fees, in other words, fees paid by developers to meet the needs of the areas new residents.

The ribbon cutting ceremony on September 23 is free and open to the public. Scenic Brook Pocket Park itself is already open to visitors.

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Transit News

Austin light rail project moves one step closer after key federal report

Austin Transit Partnership/Facebook

A rendering of Austin's proposed light rail.

Austin's slow-evolving light rail is one step closer to finally becoming a reality thanks to a federal funding recommendation, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) gave the first phase of the project a "medium" justification rating and a "medium-high" financial commitment rating in its Annual Report on Funding Recommendations.

A light rail is a passenger train with a lighter capacity than a commuter rail, which Austin already has heading toward Leander. The first phase as presented by the Austin Transit Partnership will have 15 stops at places like the airport, Pleasant Valley, South Congress, Cesar Chavez, the University of Texas, and as far north as Crestview (bounded by Burnet Road, West Anderson Road, and North Lamar Boulevard). It will also add a bridge over Lady Bird Lake.

The FTA report broke the project up into categories that each got their own confidence rating. For the justification rating, the highest-rated aspect of the light rail were congestion relief and economic development, both receiving a "medium-high" rating. The portion that inspired the least confidence was cost effectiveness, which was given a "low" rating. Environmental benefits, mobility improvements, and land use were all rated as "medium."

The overall medium-high rating means that the project is on track to receive funds from the Capital Investments Grants (CIG) Program, "the Federal Government’s primary financial resource for supporting transit capital projects that are locally planned, implemented, and operated," as the document explains it. The CIG Program would cover 49.4 percent of the light rail's Phase 1 work.

Altogether, the project is expected to cost $7.1 billion and start construction in 2027. The current timeline has the system opening to the public in 2033.

Austin's transit landscape is in a state of flux that some people are pulling forward and others are pushing against. Since mid-November, Austin's CapMetro has approved a plan through 2035 that will add six new lines and punch up more than 40 others, as well as asked the public for input on four options for cap-and-stitch designs (public gathering places) over Interstate 35.

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