A looming decision over parks above I-35 is forcing Austin City Council members to weigh two risky paths forward, and elected officials are beginning to split over which direction the city should take.
This fork in the road centers on a deceptively simple question: Which highway decks should the city commit to paying for?
Council members broadly face two options. They could agree now to building the full set of caps the city has planned, effectively locking them into the massive I-35 expansion project as it moves forward. Or they could hold off, leaving the door open to adding caps later, but at a significantly higher cost.
Either way, most of the payments wouldn't be due until the early 2030s. But the answer will shape how much the project ultimately costs and could determine whether large sections of I-35 ever get capped at all.
Council members split on what to do
The general footprint of the city's "Cap and Stitch" project was already set in May. A divided City Council agreed to spend $104 million in future years on the support columns and foundations needed to hold the decks over I-35 after the Texas Department of Transportation sinks the main lanes.
Under that plan, the largest sequence of caps would span I-35 from Cesar Chavez Street to Seventh Street, potentially creating one of the most prominent parks in Central Austin.
Another cap would cover the freeway between 11th and 12th streets, providing a gateway to Austin's African-American Cultural Heritage District. Two smaller "stitches," each roughly 300 feet wide, would be built near the Hancock Center between 41st Street and Capital Metro's Red Line crossing.
What the council has not decided is whether and when to commit to paying for the decks themselves. TxDOT is rebuilding the highway, but it will not fund the caps. That decision now sits squarely with the city.
Both options carry real risks. Committing early would require the council to act before detailed designs are finished, creating uncertainty around the final price tag. Waiting would reduce that uncertainty, but city and state officials agree it would drive up the cost by 35% or more and could make some caps harder to build.
The project's price tag is murky at this relatively early stage, but estimates have pegged the cost of the 14 acres of decks — with nothing on them yet — at almost $400 million. Meanwhile, the City Council just voted to shave $95 million from its annual budget after voters rejected a property tax hike in November.
"There's no question this project is going to cost a lot," City Council Member Chito Vela told KUT News. "The reality is, though, when it's done it will have huge economic benefits in terms of additional property tax revenues that are going to be brought in to the city."
Vela pointed in particular to the stretch of I-35 closest to downtown. "Looking at that highway cap between Cesar Chavez through Seventh Street, if we were to cap that area of the highway and put some nice amenities on it, we are potentially building one of the best downtown parks in Texas," he said.
Other council members are more wary.
Council Member Krista Laine, who voted against the project in May, said the financial risk has only increased since then. She pointed to inflation, tariffs, labor shortages and the Trump administration's decision to cancel a $105 million federal grant for the Cap and Stitch project.
"I haven't heard any news about new funding sources that have come into play. It's been many months since we had that discussion and took that vote," Laine told KUT News. "We need to make sure that we have enough capacity for the needs of the city, given the very significant revenue constraints."
City and TxDOT disagree on May deadline
Adding urgency to the situation is an apparent disconnect between how TxDOT and city of Austin staff view the project's next milestone.
TxDOT says it needs an estimate by May of how many caps the city is considering funding with a formal council vote in November. The state agency says it needs an approximate number so it can start negotiations with highway design firms.
City staff see it differently, saying they can't provide even an early signal about how much highway the city plans to cap without formal direction from the City Council. From their perspective, the city's governance structure doesn't give staff the leeway to offer even a ballpark estimate on a project involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
As a result, city staff are treating May as a firm decision point. They're asking council members to vote by then on how much, if anything, the city is willing to commit toward the caps, even if a formal funding decision isn't required by TxDOT until November.
"This is hugely concerning," City Council Member Paige Ellis said at a Mobility Committee meeting this month upon hearing the news. "This puts the city in a very tough spot when we're in a moment of having to make some very tough decisions about our own city budget."
