City of Austin Mayor Kirk Watson's Wire: The Magic of Saving MUNY golf course in West Austin.

 Below is Mayor Watson's WIRE on the SAVE MUNY deal.

Here is what I, George Vance McGee personally wrote and emailed to all current City of Austin elected councilmembers: 

I am local born Austinite. As a youth my neighborhood friends and I, when were aged around late elementary and middle school during the summers  would get dropped off by our parents to go play beginner golf @ Pitch N Putt and @ MUNY in West Austin. It got us kids outside in green space, it created friendships, it was sporty and it was affordable fun! MUNY was and still is a welcoming public golf course for all ability types from entry level to as good as it gets. 

As an adult who still merrily resides, works and raises a family in Austin, TX (St. Elmo SoCo 78745 Zip Code area) I support this deal as described in the various press releases and media. It seems like a WIN for all involved, to my eyes!

WIN for Green Space / Nature in Central Austin! The Saved Green Space may keep the urban temperatures down in Austin, TX with our increasing climate change induced heat. Austin, TX should never be the concrete Jungle that is the DFW Metroplex. We're a city of trails, Hikers, Runner, Joggers and Cyclists, Barton Springs, Deep Eddy, Public Parks and more.

 WIN for more housing and development! the Future Commercial/Residential/Mixed Use along the Lake Austin, town lake riverfront tract will be welcomed and needed. More Housing and perhaps citizen access to this section of the Colorado River. We've seen how new developments can be successful and provide housing, such as the The GROVE circa W. 38th street, MUELLER in East Austin, etc...

WIN for the GOLF enthusiasts and City Landmarks and Historical Preservationists, with MUNY being preserved. MUNY is a public golf course with decades ago long history worthy of acknowledgement  and perpetual remembrance. 

Congratulations to all the parties whom have worked to get the SAVE MUNY deal this far, and also in the future and path to preservation and continued public enjoyment. 

George Vance McGee

The public golf course that most of us call “Muny” is an important Austin asset. It’s officially called Lions Municipal Golf Course. For many years, there’s been uncertainty surrounding its future. Would it remain greenspace, would it stay a golf course, or would it be developed? I’m happy to announce that there’s finally an excellent path forward that includes Muny belonging to the City of Austin and the WAYA campus belonging to WAYA. Muny became the first public golf course in Austin when it was constructed in 1924 on University of Texas land. It’s still owned by UT. It’s been leased and operated by the City pretty much since the beginning. In 1950, it was the first public golf course in the South to desegregate, and it’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a civil rights landmark. A Lotta Work and Effort I’ve been involved in discussions regarding Muny for a long, long time, going all the way back to when I was Austin Mayor the first time. I stayed involved during my time in the Texas Senate because the lease with UT was set to expire and we wanted to keep precious greenspace, and preserve a key part of Austin’s—the country’s—history. Since 2019, we’ve been operating on a month-to-month lease with UT. The threat of development has been real. For example, in 2009, a New York consultant was hired to create a very dense development plan (think of Manhattan) that would have totally consumed the golf course. Part of my efforts to save Muny included Senate Bill 2553, which I authored in 2019, creating the Save Historic Muny District. Put simply, for decades, the City, the University, and members of our community have discussed various solutions to the operation, ownership, and preservation of Muny, including the 1989 Brackenridge Development Agreement (BDA), which laid out terms for how UT can develop the land it owns, including the 190 acres that isn’t the golf course. That 190 acres is on both sides of Lake Austin Boulevard. It includes where the H-E-B, CVS, 7-11, the Boulevard apartments (formerly the Gables) are located. It also includes the land occupied by the LCRA Headquarters, Oyster Landing (Mozart’s, Hula Hut and other businesses), the land used for graduate student and family housing, and other UT assets on the south side of Lake Austin Blvd. Figuring out how to save Muny and allow the University to get value out of its land that was given to UT to support its students and campus hasn’t been easy. Lots of good faith effort, but we’ve never been able to get to a good result. A Historic Gift Opens the Door   All the years of effort, all the ideas for solutions, all the negotiations, pleas, and fundraising were always missing a foundational piece needed to create the path forward—how to get a reasonable value for open space, for the golf course, and not have it developed. We now have that. A wonderfully generous set of donors—people who believe strongly in Muny being preserved as important greenspace and as an 18-hole golf course—has stepped up to contribute a very large amount of money to the University to support UT’s students and campus. They also believe in the WAYA campus’s preservation. The donation is big and it's an important part of a potential agreement that opens the door to UT conveying Muny to the City of Austin and the WAYA campus to WAYA. I’m beyond grateful for these donors who are long-time Austinites and who want to remain anonymous. They believe in Austin. Austin owes them great thanks. I’m also grateful for UT Austin and its current leadership for their collaboration through this process. Going Through the Door To complete this transaction and to step through the open door, we need to update the Brackenridge Development Agreement, the old 1989 agreement that defines what UT can do with the other 190 acres. Modernizing this agreement will better assure that development of the land provides housing, retail amenities for the neighborhood, height limits, setbacks from the lake, open space, and density provisions, while also sustaining a commitment to affordable housing. The modernized BDA will directly address the conveyance of Muny and the WAYA property. After we update the BDA, we’ll need to approve a regulating plan, which is essentially zoning for the area, and we’ll need to create a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone to pay for infrastructure. We’ll get community input through both Planning and Environmental Commission consideration, allowing for multiple public briefings. We’ll also ensure surrounding stakeholders are engaged and involved. UT doesn’t have actual plans right now for the property’s development. However, the various pieces and agreements will allow us to do something we haven’t been able to do before. We’ll provide UT the ability to satisfy the original donor’s purpose when he gave UT System the land, including obtaining value from the land. And we’ll save Muny forever. Dear Friends of Muny, Yesterday marked an extraordinary milestone in our decades-long effort to Save Muny. The City of Austin and The University of Texas announced significant progress toward an agreement transferring ownership of Lions Municipal Golf Course to the City, paving the way for the permanent preservation of all 141 acres and 18 holes for generations to come. For those of us who love Muny, it is difficult to put into words what this moment means. Muny is so much more than a golf course. It is a piece of Austin's heart and soul, a place where people have congregated and built community bonds for more than a century. This progress is a testament to the tireless dedication of generations of Austinites who have stood behind this mission. We are incredibly grateful to the generous donors helping make this agreement possible, Mayor Watson, the City of Austin, the University of Texas, the Muny Conservancy Board of Directors, Advisory Board members, event sponsors, volunteers, donors, and every single person who has supported the Save Muny effort along the way. While today is a day for celebration, we are not across the finish line yet. The proposed agreement still requires approval from Austin City Council on November 19. We need your continued support to see this mission through and ensure that Muny remains an accessible public treasure and civil rights landmark for generations to come. Please read our full press release and recent news coverage linked below to learn more about this historic development, and the important steps still ahead. We encourage you to voice your support for the plan to Save Muny by contacting Austin’s City Council ahead of November 19th. AT THIS LINK is a suggested email template for Friends of Muny to contact City Council members. Please share this message with your personal network and encourage other community stakeholders to speak out in support of Muny. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for believing in Muny and for helping bring us closer than ever to securing its future.   With gratitude and optimism,   Ben Crenshaw & Scotty Sayers Co-Chairs, The Muny Conservancy   Read More About This Historic Development Muny Conservancy Official Press Release Watson Wire Austin American-Statesman Austin Business Journal KXAN News Houston Chronicle Community Impact     Voice Your Support before the City Council meeting on November 19th! Email Outline for Friends of Muny to contact City Council Copyright (C) 2026 Save Muny | The Muny Conservancy. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website, have participated in a Save Muny event or signed the Save Muny petition. Our mailing address is: Save Muny | The Muny Conservancy 1800 Nueces St. Austin, TX 78701 USA Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe