The Austin City Council is getting ready for summer recess, but before members take off they鈥檝e been approving projects that eventually could drastically change the look and feel of the city. Thursday鈥檚 session may not have seemed like a game-changer, but it has huge implications for the future.
Most of the projects passed on uneventful 7-0 votes. The Council approved negotiations to buy , an environmental and financial study that may , and that may eventually become Austin鈥檚 jewel.
Earlier this month, lead architect Michael Van Valkenburg showed the council . In his vision, existing parks east and west of I-35 will be connected.
鈥淭aking down those buildings and regrading it and planting it so that an area that looks like this now would open up to the water鈥檚 edge,鈥� Van Valkenburg said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing this as especially child- and young-person oriented.鈥�
Parks such as this one are years, maybe 20 years, in the making. So the steps taken Thursday by the Austin City Council will be felt 20 or even 30 years from now.
