Springdale, A Totally Recycled Park!
Austin, Texas

Citizens and Nonprofit Groups Working Together

While piles of waste were being removed from the Springdale Park by the City’s East Austin Environmental Initiative, the Austin Parks Foundation helped the Springdale Park Steering Committee voice its dreams by funding a community-based Springdale Park Concept Plan.

Before Redevelopment: Dumpsite

Before Redevelopment: Tire Pile

During Redevelopment: Construction

The Steering Committee worked with Dr. Kent Butler of the University of Texas, at Austin who held a public workshop and children’s workshops at Norman, Sims, and Ortega elementary schools, to get citizen input on the park design. The children at each school drew pictures, made models, and wrote essays about their dreams for Springdale Park.These wonderful ideas, along with the results of the public workshop, were incorporated into the final concept plan- “Springdale, A Totally Recycled Park!”

The concept plan was presented to the Austin City Council by members of the METSA-ACORN and the Steering Committee, and gained City approval of $250,000 for the 3 Phase developments.Phase I, at an estimated cost of $250,000, included removing glass fragments from the soil, clearing vegetation, building sidewalks, creating an entrance to the park, building playscapes for children, and installing park benches.The Austin Parks Foundation granted $50,000 to the development of the park and sought additional corporate partners to complete the 2nd and 3rd phases of the park.The park serves as a successful model for the reuse of brownfields as a greenspace project.

After Redevelopment: Completed Park

For more information on Austin Brownfields Redevelopment go to the Austin WebBRIMS site.

If you have a success story you would like featured on the CBI site, please contact brownfields@gcr1.com.

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