The city announced the proposed deal Oct. 14. Austin City Council could vote Nov. 19 on an amendment to the 1989 Brackenridge Development Agreement, which governs development and other arrangements involving the area. The transfer is not final, and UT said the university’s Board of Regents would need to consider its next steps.

The city said the proposed agreement could also address a possible update to UT’s lease at the former Mueller airport site, exchanges of city rights-of-way, a development plan to be negotiated by the two parties and the possible creation of a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ.

City staff are scheduled to brief the Environmental and Planning Commission in October. If the council acts in November, staff would develop the regulating plan and TIRZ proposal in the following months, then return to the council in spring 2027. Those measures would go through additional boards, commissions and council consideration, according to the city.

The parties have not released detailed terms for the proposed transfer or the potential development plan. UT said it is working with the city on future university development and use of the Brackenridge tract, while seeking to meet its responsibilities to the university. It also thanked anonymous donors for a proposed gift intended to help reach a resolution benefiting UT students and the Austin community.

Mayor Kirk Watson said the donors support preserving Muny as greenspace and an 18-hole golf course, as well as preserving the WAYA campus. City Manager T.C. Broadnax said development near Lady Bird Lake should be handled carefully and described the agreement as a way for the city and university to pursue their respective goals.

Lions Municipal, commonly called Muny, has been operated by Austin under a month-to-month lease with UT since 2019. Debate over development has spanned decades; in 2009, a consultant was hired to develop a plan that would replace the golf course.

Muny opened as Austin’s first public golf course and became the first course in the South to integrate peacefully. Black Austinites had been barred from playing there even as they worked as caddies. In 1950, two Black caddies were allowed to finish a round after they began playing, according to the Muny Conservancy’s account of the event. The City Council publicly recognized the course’s desegregation the following year.

Whether the emerging agreement will secure the course’s long-term future will depend on the final terms, the Regents’ consideration and subsequent city approvals. The pending council vote would mark an important step, not the end of the process.