SIGN THIS PETITION TO STOP CITY COUNCIL FROM SELLING 9 ACRES OF PARKLAND ON LADY BIRD LAKE SHORES TO ORACLE

Dear Mayor Steve Adler and Councilmembers, we the undersigned petitioners are requesting that you rescind the vote of August 11, 2021 to place the sale of a parkland designated site at 2525 Lakeshore Blvd. on the November 2, 2021 ballot.

This sale of designated parkland (maintenance facility placeholder is on the site ) imperils City’s plans to develop the property as green space and view corridor for Lady Bird Lake from Lakeshore Drive, as it was intended when the land became parkland. This is the last remaining potential public access point to the lake, as all other properties and most streets in this area of IH 35 to Pleasant Valley along the lakefront are privately owned. ALL OF SOUTHEAST AUSTIN WILL LOSE ACCESS TO THE SHORES OF LADY BIRD LAKE.

Advocates worked on designating this property and others owned by the city along the Lady Bird Lake shoreline in the 1980s and 1990s (even those with city facilities on them), with the intention that in the future these would become parkland/green spaces/view corridors to the lake (this following the catastrophic construction of the massive, obstructive Hyatt Regency). We envisioned that the city facilities on these lakefront properties were to be removed to allow for access/green spaces/view corridors to the lake.

By selling the city’s 9 acres to ORACLE development, Lakeshore Drive will literally be privatized, and the intended purposes of the parkland designation of the site at 2525 Lakeshore Blvd. will be voided; southeast Austin residents will lose valuable access to Austin’s precious lake. Austinites should not give up one more inch of property fronting Lady Bird Lake for any purpose other than public use.

There was no public comment opportunity, nor public deliberations on the merits of this sale, although in our opinion there are NO MERITS since ORACLE’s promises to buy acreage for the city in far east Austin in exchange, is demeaning since we are perfectly able to buy the land ourselves, and not sacrifice parkland in the URBAN CORE, especially lakefront property. We work hard to pay our taxes, we are solvent, and we don’t need to bargain with corporations for our public space. If we were able to pay $350 million for green areas for west Austin, we can also do this for fast growing far out East Austin. The New York Times identified Austin as one of the top 10 cities with the most inequalities in tree canopy (west versus east), and we do not need to worsen the situation with this sorry deal.