City: Disc golfers damaging Pease Park

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The Austin Parks Department is looking for solutions to repair the popular Pease Park near Downtown Austin.

The park, gifted to the city in 1875, has become a hotbed destination for disc golfers. But the foot traffic from the golfers has eroded land and caused sediment to get into nearby Shoal Creek, Austin Parks and Recreation Department Director Sara Hensley said in a memo sent to Austin City Council Members and the Mayor on Friday.

"Riparian soil and vegetation through the disc golf course on steep or shaded ground cannot be maintained within the context of this daily impact," Hensley said.

The memo lays out a nearly two-year process to eventually close Pease Park for a major overhaul restoration in October 2011.

The Parks Department is meeting with stakeholders like the Pease neighborhood, Trees for Pease, as well as the Waterloo Disc Golf Association to come up with a plan to restore the park.

The city wants to put in boulders in near Shoal Creek, storm water treatment systems and other areas of the creek restore the landscape around the 78-acres of land.

The City of Austin's Parks Department is planning a meeting with the Waterloo Disc Golf Association Wednesday to come up with more solutions.