Dear Coalition Members,

I need your guidance. Recently I was asked if my goal is to have a dog park anywhere in Mueller or at a specific location. This is not about what I want. It's about about what Coalition members and the community as a whole want. 

Take this 2-question survey to guide the Coalition’s advocacy work in 2026. 
The survey closes at midnight Friday, Feb. 6.

Please read this before you take the survey!

The community overwhelmingly supports a Mueller dog park but has different opinions on where it should be: 

  • POA survey: 46% for the Southeast Greenway; 38% for the Northwest Greenway.

  • Coalition survey: 63% for the Southeast Greenway; 34% for the Northwest Greenway.

  • The working group could not reach consensus and members asked for a pilot project at each site, but the city could only fund one. The group narrowly voted 5-4 for the Northwest Greenway, with 1 abstention.

In October the Mueller Mixed-Use Board postponed voting on the Mueller dog park working group’s recommendation and asked Cohere staff to report back on maintenance cost estimates, design options and other details. I expect the board will take this up again soon.

Without consensus, the Coalition has requested two pilot projects and has pledged to raise $5,000 in donations to pay for a second pilot. City parks staff have agreed to do a second pilot project. Austin Parks Foundation has agreed to accept the donations on behalf of the city. 

This would give the POA and the city actual data on both sites to guide where a permanent park should be, including users’ feedback, maintenance costs and environmental impacts for each site.  However, key decision-makers seem determined to ignore the community's overwhelming support for the Southeast Greenway in order to appease a small but vocal group of opponents. 

The good news is there's an alternative site in southeast Mueller: a city-owned public park with a huge open field on Zach Scott, next to the AISD sports track. Austin parks staff, working group members and the Coalition have all proposed this site. But the developer said they owned this property so it was off the table. 

It turns out that’s incorrect. The city owns this land but plans to transfer it to the developer sometime this year without any input from POA members and the public. The POA and developer claim this transfer would prevent an off-leash area here. We're researching whether public recreation and public use easements could provide liability protection for the POA and enable the city to install park amenities on private land. 

As a long-time public servant, legislative policy analyst and journalist, I find it shocking that we have no say on the city transferring public parkland to private ownership, or how the public park can best meet our community's needs. The developer and city staff claim the Mueller Master Development Agreement – adopted two decades ago – allows exactly that to occur. As the developer and the city prepare to turn the keys over the POA, it's time to change this practice and allow Mueller property owners to decide what's best for our community.

Thank you,

Merrell Foote

Mueller homeowner and founder of the Mueller Dog Park Coalition