"Anytime after 10 a.m. from April to September."
That's one survey respondent's full answer when the City of Austin asked when parking near Eilers Neighborhood Park gets hard. It's a short answer to a question the city is taking seriously this year. Austin Parks and Recreation is writing a concept plan for the 8-acre park at 401 Deep Eddy Avenue on Lady Bird Lake. The plan will guide future work on amenities, accessibility, environmental restoration and how people get in and out.
The first round of survey results is already public, and it shows a gap. The improvement people want most is a trail extension to Red Bud Isle. The problems this plan is best equipped to fix sit inside the park's own fence line: a full lot, thin shade and a riverbank in need of restoration. Knowing which is which tells you where your input will count over the next few months.
The park that isn't the pool
The scope is narrower than most people would guess. Deep Eddy Pool sits inside the park boundary but is left out of this effort. The bathhouse and the EMS building are excluded too. The planning covers everything around them. That includes a playground renovated in 2018 with shade structures, a small picnic area, the dock, a community garden, a trailhead onto the Eilers (Deep Eddy) Neighborhood Park Trail, a portable staff building and a thick canopy of mature trees along the water.
The garden has its own long history. Deep Eddy Community Garden says it was founded in 1983, calls itself Austin's second-oldest community garden, and describes individual plots tended by members on the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail. The city held a separate small-group session with the gardeners on September 23.
The land itself goes back further. The city bought most of it from A.J. Eilers in 1935, and the Works Progress Administration paid for a new bathhouse the following year.
The current effort runs on a modest budget. RVI Planning + Landscape Architecture is the consultant, with $110,000 for site analysis, concept development, mapping and cost estimates. Friends of Deep Eddy, the all-volunteer nonprofit that supports both the pool and Eilers Park, is putting in $36,000 toward the site analysis phase. The rest comes from the city's general fund. That money pays for a plan, phased recommendations and estimated costs. Construction is not part of this budget.
What the survey actually said
The city's first survey closed September 14. Seventy people answered the question about which improvements would bring them to the park more often, and each could pick up to four.
| Improvement | Share of 70 responses |
|---|---|
| Trail extension to Red Bud Isle | 64% |
| Easier or more parking options | 56% |
| Improved walking paths or trail connectivity | 41% |
| More shade options | 39% |
| Better connectivity to the lake | 34% |
| Drinking fountain with pet bowl | 23% |
| Exercise equipment | 14% |
| More areas for open play | 13% |
The interesting part is how the top two answers relate. On a separate question with 84 responses, 67% said they drive to the park, 18% walk and 15% bike. So two-thirds of respondents arrive by car, and nearly two-thirds of the larger group want a trail. Both answers point to the same issue. The park is hard to reach any way other than driving, and the lot can't absorb everyone who drives.
The lake questions point the same way. Asked how important lake access is, respondents split almost evenly: 39% said somewhat important, 38% not important and 25% very important. When asked which lake improvements they'd want, they got clearer. Seating or viewing near the water drew 69%, shoreline and riverbank restoration 61%, and defined access to the dock from existing paths 42%. The result reads less like a request for a launch site and more like a request for a better place to sit by the lake, with a healthier bank below it.
A lot that serves three destinations
The parking answers explain why the lot comes up so often. The paved lot in front of the Deep Eddy entrance is the main parking for visitors, with overflow west of it. Of 61 respondents who described parking problems, 84% said the lot is often full. Another 46% cited difficult circulation getting in and out, and 43% said they had seen people park there and walk somewhere other than the park or pool.
The comments name where some of those people go. Two respondents tied the hardest times to the hours when Pool Burger and Deep Eddy Cabaret are busy. One suggested making the lot tow-away for anyone not using the park or pool. Another asked for staff at the entrance whenever the pool is open. Both businesses are long-standing parts of this stretch of Lake Austin Boulevard. Deep Eddy Cabaret, at 2315 Lake Austin Blvd., is listing a 75th-anniversary event for November 28, 2026. Pool Burger's visitor listing shows reviews from late September 2026. The overlap comes from the lot's location. It sits where a public pool and two popular neighbors meet, and the plan's objectives include reviewing "parking lot circulation, capacity, and safety" along with new pedestrian, bike and vehicle access.
Parking has been on the volunteers' list for a while. In notes from its May 5, 2026 annual meeting, Friends of Deep Eddy put parking and traffic first among the priorities its board ranked in March 2025. Those priorities came from swimmer and stakeholder input gathered in October 2024.
Why Red Bud Isle stays on paper for now
The city's objectives include "future trail extension opportunities west of the park," with a reference to page 156 of the Our Parks, Our Future Long-Range Plan. That puts the idea on the study list, and that is as far as it goes today. The research turned up no construction funding or schedule for a link between Eilers and Red Bud Isle.
The city's own inventories describe the trails as separate pieces. Its directory lists the Eilers park trail at 0.35 miles and the Red Bud Isle trail at 0.52 miles, with no continuous connection between them. The 2023 Urban Trails Plan describes the Ann and Roy Butler Trail as the existing 10-mile loop around Lady Bird Lake, running from MoPac to North Pleasant Valley. A westward extension to Red Bud Isle isn't part of that description. Red Bud Isle sits near Tom Miller Dam. It is also on the Austin Parks Foundation's list of off-leash dog areas.
A separate project is underway at that end of the lake, and it shouldn't be mistaken for the trail. The Redbud Trail Bridge project, funded through the 2012 and 2018 mobility bonds, started as a full replacement of the 1948 bridge. It now focuses on rehabilitating parts of the existing structure and building a new bridge, with better space for people walking and biking across Lady Bird Lake. The city lists construction letting for Spring or Summer 2027 and construction from Summer 2027 through Fall 2031. Those improvements cross the lake. They don't run along the shore toward Deep Eddy.
The water there has its own history. On June 2, 2026, the city warned of thick, potentially toxic blue-green algae mats at Red Bud Isle and advised care around the water. That notice did not announce a closure, and the city's algae page is the place to check for anything more recent before a visit with a dog.
The rounds still ahead
The structure of the plan is what makes the Red Bud request useful. The Eilers plan has to deliver an implementation strategy with phases and cost estimates. If the westward trail shows up there with a phase and a price, it moves from a survey percentage toward something future funding can point to. The remaining rounds are where that gets decided:
- Round 2, "Explore the Options." The city will share the Round 1 results, present two preliminary concept plans and ask which one people prefer. The project page lists it for fall but had no date posted at last check.
- Round 3, "Confirm the Vision." A check that the draft plan matches what people said in the first two rounds.
- Winter. The final concept and summary, with the full process wrapping up in early 2027.
Engagement so far has included online surveys, pop-ups at the pool entrance and the Johnson Trailhead, and small-group conversations. The city says summaries of each round will be posted on the project page. Since no Round 2 date has been announced, the city's email update list is the most reliable way to hear about it. Questions go to project manager Gregory Montes at [email protected] or 512-974-9458.
You can also see the park in its current state before any concepts come out. Deep Eddy Pool's posted season runs through October 31, 2026, with swimming from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Tuesday closures for cleaning.
If you'd like to talk through what this plan could mean for your corner of Tarrytown, from parking and shade near Deep Eddy to where a future trail might connect, Katherine Beckworth is glad to compare notes as the next round takes shape. Let's Connect.
