Austin City Council Backs Lions Muny, UT Wants Its Shops

Even though it's American-university leading endowment of $25 billion is ahead of Yale's resource stash, University of Texas wants to develop the Lions Municipal course that was home to integration and the school's two greatest golfers.

That didn't stop the Austin City Council from taking a stand, as Mary Huber reports for the Austin-American Statesman (thanks Digsouth for sending).

The council’s unanimous show of support Thursday came after Council Member Sheri Gallo described the “changes in hearts and minds” the course has represented since the 1950s, when two black golfers walked onto the West Austin course to play a round of golf. City officials then agreed to let them play, leading many to describe the course, nicknamed “Muny,” as the first integrated golf course in the South.

Gallo also made a case for the course’s future. “We are sending a very strong statement that we would like this property to remain as open green space,” said Gallo, whose District 10 includes the course.

The city leases the 141-acre course from the University of Texas System, which has crafted plans to develop the course and the rest of the Brackenridge Tract into housing, shops and hotels. Several years ago, the university voted against renewing the city’s lease on the golf course, which expires in May 2019. A mixed-use development could garner the university system $5.5 million per year, as opposed to the few hundred thousand dollars in yearly rent it receives from the city of Austin.

They can get the endowment up to $25,005,000,000 in year one alone!