Pause Wastewater Pipeline Construction at Festival Beach Food Forest
Austin City Council, Parks Board, Capital Delivery Services, Austin Water, TxDOT I-35 Capital Express Central Project
Festival Beach Food Forest (FBFF) is a 3-acre, volunteer-led permaculture food forest on public parkland in Austin, Texas. Built through years of collaboration between community members and the City of Austin, it provides free food, education, and ecological stewardship.
FBFF is now facing imminent disruption due to a planned wastewater pipeline relocation associated with TxDOT’s I-35 Capital Express Central Project. FBFF leaders were notified of this excavation only weeks before construction is scheduled to begin.
The area slated for trenching is part of FBFF’s City-approved Phase 2 Expansion, funded through the City of Austin Urban Forest Grants in 2024 and 2025. Over 100 volunteers planted more than 90 trees and shrubs in this area over the past year, including plantings designed to support a mature, approximately 40-year-old Mountain Laurel that is expected to be destroyed.
We are launching this petition to build public support and raise awareness to pause planned wastewater pipeline construction through the Festival Beach Food Forest. A pause would allow for a permaculture-based approach to this utility project and the impacted area, which would allow time for the FBFF team, City, and TxDOT stakeholders to:
- Align utility needs with the existing City-approved Food Forest plans and formally address communication breakdowns, ensuring that legally binding community partnerships agreements are honored (such as construction schedule and scope clarity, identified site superintendent, and a single City point of accountability).
- Ensure that any easement funds received by the city are directly reinvested into FBFF to repair damage and compensate for lost materials and community labor.
- Mitigate the environmental impact by supporting the preservation of as many plants and materials, including soil, during the construction process, so they can remain a part of the Food Forest ecosystem, and specifically assess the feasibility of preserving the mature Mountain Laurel.
We believe that this is not just about one food forest. It is about whether community-based organizations and volunteers can rely on City agreements, public processes, and good-faith collaboration—or whether those commitments can be bypassed during large infrastructure projects.
Please sign to support an immediate pause and a more transparent, community-centered approach to infrastructure planning on public parkland.
Sponsored by
To:
Austin City Council, Parks Board, Capital Delivery Services, Austin Water, TxDOT I-35 Capital Express Central Project
From:
[Your Name]
I am writing as an Austin resident who cares about Festival Beach Food Forest to ask for an immediate pause on the planned wastewater pipeline construction through Festival Beach Food Forest (FBFF) that is expected to begin February 16.
This food forest has been developed in partnership with the City of Austin over many years. Community stewards were notified of the planned excavation only weeks before construction is scheduled to begin (Jan. 6, 2026), seemingly in violation of Chapter 26 state regulations for reallocation of parkland. They should have been given 30-days notice of public hearings on this easement acquisition in October 2024-January 2025. This is egregious and deserves a coordinated response from the City to make things right.
A pause would allow for a permaculture-based approach to this utility project and the impacted area, which would allow time for the FBFF team, City, and TxDOT stakeholders to:
1) Align utility needs with the existing City-approved Food Forest plans and formally address communication breakdowns, ensuring that legally binding community partnerships agreements are honored (such as construction schedule and scope clarity, identified site superintendent, and a single City point of accountability).
2) Ensure that any easement funds received by the city are directly reinvested into FBFF to repair damage and compensate for lost materials and community labor.
3) Mitigate the environmental impact by supporting the preservation of as many plants and materials, including soil, during the construction process, so they can remain a part of the Food Forest ecosystem, and specifically assess the feasibility of preserving the mature Mountain Laurel.
Please help FBFF by ensuring there is a temporary pause to construction in this parkland so the City, Austin Water, TxDOT, and community stewards can work together on a permaculture-based approach that minimizes ecological damage and respects existing City-approved plans and public investment.
We believe that this is not just about one food forest. It is about whether community-based organizations and volunteers can rely on City agreements, public processes, and good-faith collaboration—or whether those commitments can be bypassed during large infrastructure projects.
Thank you for your time and for considering a more transparent, community-centered approach to the use of our public parkland.