The City of Austin and its community partners invite Northeast Austin residents to celebrate the final Master Plan for two large tracts of publically-owned land by participating in a free Family Fun Fest June 23.

The Family Fun Fest will include a Colony Park Master Plan Open House and a Community Resources Fair from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Multi-Purpose Facility and the adjacent grounds of the Turner-Roberts Recreation Center, 7201 Colony Loop Drive.

The open house will allow the community to see how its ideas and preferences for the area translate into a Master Plan that will go to the Austin City Council in early fall. The Master Plan focuses on 208 acres of publicly-owned land off Loyola Lane as well as 93 acres of adjacent City-owned parkland.

The Family Fun Fest will include food, music, and an opportunity for residents to interact with local service vendors to receive information on educational, health, and social services, safety, and adult/youth programs.

Besides land-use planning, the Colony Park Sustainable Community Initiative calls for programs to build leadership and other capacity for residents within a targeted area. The Family Fun Fest and upcoming professional development classes for the community will address those goals.

Through one-on-one discussions with planners, door-to-door surveys, and small-group and larger community meetings, Colony Park area residents have participated in this transformational project. Residents have expressed a preference for a walkable, mixed-use development that can be a catalyst for jobs and the location for needed services such as a grocery store and medical facilities.

The Master Plan incorporates those ideas as it identifies the placement of housing, streets, commercial/retail development, and green space within the 208 acres.

The Master Plan for the 208 acres is funded through a $3 million Community Challenge Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The City’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department administers the grant. The Parks and Recreation Department is funding the plan for the adjacent parkland.

The Colony Park Neighborhood Association, the University of Texas-Austin Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, and Austin Community College are partners with the City of Austin in the Colony Park Sustainable Community Initiative. The Master Plan was developed by Farr Associates of Chicago and Urban Design Group of Austin.

For more information about the initiative, go to http://www.colonyparkatx.org.

Contact:  Communications and Public Information Office (512) 974-2220