The overview
On July 21, Lakeway City Council received an update from Lakeway Director of Parks and Recreation Andra Bennett as well as engineering firm Dunaway’s Discipline Lead Molly Pell on current planning work for Butler Park.
The park plan as presented to Lakeway City Council on July 21 was estimated to cost $2.7 million in total, according to a presentation by Pell.
Pell shared updated plans for the park, which includes an amphitheater with limestone block seating, a mountain bike course, a basketball area with six individual hoop stations, a multisports field including baseball and soccer equipment, a ninja course, and a playground area with accessible and shaded structures.
Some recent efforts to mitigate cost for the project included incorporating restrooms into the park’s pavilion, reducing the size of the amphitheater and implementing solar lighting.
“We did try to fine tune little details like this,” Bennett said.
Park planning work is now 95% complete in terms of engineering and design, Bennett said. At the meeting, Bennett requested approval for updated park plans in order to move forward with final steps, which council granted in a unanimous vote.
What else?
Other parks targeted by Lakeway’s 2024 Parks Bond include Lakeway City Park, Lakeway Swim Center Park, Lakeway Activity Center, and Live Oak Tennis Courts.
Meanwhile, the Parks Department is currently preparing to send out a request for qualification for an aquatic-specific engineering and design firm for The Lakeway Swim Center, Molis said.
The Lakeway Activity Center Park, while originally lower on the city’s priority list of projects, was pushed forward by the city due to its low cost and in order to give residents an “immediate win” following their approval of the parks bond, Molis said. The project is currently on track and expecting a ribbon-cutting in September, Molis said, unveiling accessible play structures similar to those featured in Butler Rough Hollow Park.
The Live Oak Tennis Courts project is still in early phases, and is considered to be council’s lowest priority park project, according to Molis’ July 21 presentation. The project is currently pending progress or completion of other parks projects.
The background
In 2024, Lakeway's Parks Bond set aside $22 million in funding for five separate city park projects. Last October, the Butler Rough Hollow Park received feedback from residents on what features the community would like to see included during a public town hall, Bennett said.
Following that meeting, the city began refining the park plan, and at a December council meeting a plan with newly incorporated community feedback was presented to City Council.
For the six months following that December meeting, the Parks Department worked to further refine that plan, leading to the one put before council July 21.
“When we put in all the community asks, what was originally slated as a $2 million project ballooned to a $3.5 million project, so we needed to go back and revise that down to [a] scope that would fit as many of the objectives of the original park plan but was also within the budget that we have to work with,” Bennett said at the meeting.
What’s next?
The city plans to send the Butler Rough Hollow park project out for bid in the beginning of January, according to city documents.
Once construction begins, the project is estimated to take about 1-1.5 years to complete.
