Plotting a New Beginning for East Austin’s Bolm District Park

An aerial view of the current unimproved state of Bolm District Park. Image: City of Austin

Like a number of other large chunks of city park property still waiting for their time in the spotlight, at the moment Bolm District Park is practically a blank canvas. Located directly south of U.S. 183 on the banks of the Colorado River as it meanders into a region known for somewhat resembling the head of a dog, the only notable claim to fame for this 68-acre piece of East Austin parkland prior to its acquisition by the city in 2013 was its use as a storage site for aggregate stockpiles — a reminder that industrial operations like concrete and asphalt plants still define this area despite an ever-increasing residential population and more large planned developments in store.

But despite all the growth and change expected here, at the moment this corner of the city is largely deficient in parks facilities, so a decade after securing the land the Parks and Recreation Department is starting the process of figuring out exactly what to do with it. Working in partnership with design consultancy Halff, the city is now taking the first steps towards developing a Bolm District Park Vision Plan, set to be released around this time next year — and needless to say, that process also involves the valuable community input of viewers like you!

Another aerial view of the Bolm parkland. Image: City of Austin

Here’s a slide from a community engagement meeting held last month on the current state of the Bolm parkland, showing some of the existing character of the site due to its industrial past — you can answer for yourself on the city’s survey about whether you think some of these elements should be preserved in a future park plan, but we personally think it would be pretty cool. Image: Austin Parks and Recreation Department

There are plenty of questions to answer here, not just on the literal survey regarding the park’s future that’s open for your feedback until December 10, but also in more of a metaphorical sense — for instance, what are the priorities of nearby residents? Can an upgraded park add facilities suitable for event programming without inviting controversy? Is it even possible anymore for Austin to successfully form a vision plan for a park’s improvement without returning to the thoroughly poisoned well over at Zilker? Do the city employees handling public engagement on this project have a reliable Xanax prescription? Just fill out the survey and be civil about it, please.