Buda City Council Approves Final Design Documents For City Park

In 2016, when an opportunity presented itself to purchase the beautiful Garison Park property for $1.2 million, the City Council made the strategic decision to acquire the property…

The Buda City Council approved final design documents for City Park at its June 19 meeting. As part of the Proposition 5 Park and Trail improvements, City Park will get a major overhaul.

The upgrades include a new amphitheater, new splash pad, new playground areas, pavilion upgrades, and new restrooms.

Background

The Proposition 5 City Park improvements are part of a $55 million bond passed by voters in November 2014. Proposition 5 originally budgeted $5,781,000 for City Park, of which approximately $438,000 was allotted for design, geotech, etc. and approximately $5,343,000 was allotted for construction.

In 2016, when an opportunity presented itself to purchase the beautiful Garison Park property for $1.2 million, the City Council made the strategic decision to acquire the property and develop a master plan for Garison Park using Proposition 5 funds.

The 40-acre property will be the future John D. and Byrd Mims Garison Memorial Park. With the purchase of the Garison land, the long-term goal is to develop the park into something comparable to the Wimberley Blue Hole. A swimming hole currently exists on the property.

A preliminary design for the future park includes the following: trails, nature center, zip lining, picnic areas, kayak launch, bird watching stations, fire pit, meadow restoration, restroom, camping, events facility, tree house and more.

In addition, there are plans to connect the future park with City Park and Stagecoach Park through a trail system. Improvements to Garison Park are planned for 2021.  

Due to the purchase of the Garison property, the budget for City Park was reduced to $4.1 million. City Council authorized the City Park design to proceed to bidding with several alternatives in order to provide the City an opportunity to obtain true market costs for construction.

Design Workshop, the City’s architect, has developed alternatives  which would result in $780,000 in savings, the City’s Public Works Department has been hard at work rough grading the site to reduce the costs, and the City is discussing corporate sponsorship of certain park elements, including the amphitheater.

This approach maximizes City Council’s flexibility in how the bid is awarded. City Council has not authorized the expenditure. They have only authorized the project to go to bid.   

City Park Improvements

With the addition of an amphitheater, the City of Buda is poised to become a premiere festival and event location.  The amphitheater design was recently changed to provide a more festival feel for the audience.

The roof was raised to make it more accommodating for lighting and for rigging sound equipment. Meanwhile, the stage was elevated to five-feet from a foot-and-a-half for optimum viewing from all angles. ADA accessible ramps were also installed on each side of the stage.

Other improvements include two new playground areas, a splash pad, pavilion upgrades, new restrooms, and a games and grilling area.

To ease traffic flow, safety improvements will also be made at the intersection of San Antonio Street and Garison Road. The plan includes separating the turning movements at the intersection.  

For information on sponsoring elements of City Park or making donations to the project, please visit our Proposition 5 Bond page. You can also find the latest information on our bond projects on our bond blog.