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City council seeks say in Brackenridge
By Kiah Collier
Austin City Council Member Jennifer Kim announced Monday that she will support a resolution opposing the potential development of the 141-acre Lions Municipal Golf Course, a part of the UT-owned Brackenridge Tract.
The resolution requests that UT seek input from the city and West Austin residents in planning for development of the tract. "There are a lot of people who have really enjoyed that golf course," Kim said. "It is a historical golf course and it's irreplaceable." According to Kim's statement announcing her support, the resolution will be voted on by the council on Nov. 8, which falls a day before the UT System Board of Regents meeting, where concerned community members will have time to address the board. Kim said the University has not sent representation to the city neighborhood planning meetings, thus excluding the city and West Austin residents in the initial planning process. "I think they need to include the city because all the efforts the city has made to get information and reach out to them have been ignored," Kim said. The city of Austin is one among many stakeholders in the 345-acre tract's future, which has been debated since the land was donated to the University in 1910 for educational purposes. The tract sits on the banks of Lady Bird Lake just west of MoPac Expressway. In addition to the golf course, it includes 515 graduate and married student apartments, restaurants and an 88-acre biological field lab, the site of some of the College of Natural Science's most respected ecological research. Earlier this month, the Brackenridge Tract Task Force recommended that the UT System regents, who manage the tract, hire a planning firm to develop a master plan for its development. The 10-person task force was organized by UT System Chairman James Huffines in July 2006 to assess the site's value and recommend alternative uses for the land. In its 80-page report, the task force concluded that the affordable student housing is "not the highest and best use of the land" and recommended that the city's lease with the golf course - due to expire in 2019 - should not be renewed. The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely.
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