Austin Voters Reject 400-Acre Hotel-Golf Course Development

AUSTIN-Austin voters have answered the million-dollar question in yesterday’s polling, rejecting Proposition No. 3.

Elected officials won’t be leasing up to 400 acres of parkland to Gagne Development Co. Inc. for a hotel-golf course project on the state capital’s east side. The final count had 98,976 residents against the measure and 96,987 for it, with the opposition camp capturing just 49% of the polling.

In a city with a view tax, voters held firm to their greenspace despite the allure of a ground lease alone that carried $1 million a year for city coffers. The development would have been constructed along the northeast side of Lake Walter E. Long. The plan had been to build a 250-room hotel that could have been expanded to 350 rooms, a 65,000-sf conference center and two 18-hole public golf courses. It also had called for a 224-seat restaurant, 90-seat lounge, health club, tennis courts, clubhouse and pro shop, driving range and putting green. An estimated 300 to 400 new jobs would have been created by the project.

Under the proposed lease, the city would have continued to own and control the land and improvements. The property is situated in a preferred growth corridor and near a planned north-south bypass connecting to Interstate 35, the region’s primary artery linking the Mexican border to Canada.