City of Austin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERelease Date:
New formula to calculate Parkland Dedication fees set by Texas House Bill 1526.
Today, the City Council adopted an updated parkland dedication fee schedule. This update was required by the passage of House Bill 1526 which was approved by the Texas Legislature in the 2023 session. The bill includes formulas which set the fees and the City of Austin has no discretion to change or alter these formulas or the calculated fees.
New fees will go into effect for all multifamily and hotel/motel site plan and subdivision applications filed on or after January 1, 2024. The new fee schedule will not affect applications that are currently filed, nor applications on single family subdivisions filed now or in 2024. These application types were excluded from the state bill.
To set the new fees, the bill first requires that cities designate all geographic areas within their municipal boundaries as CBD (central business district) Urban and Suburban. Following a public hearing on November 9, 2023, those geographic areas were adopted by Council. Subsequently, cities are required to share the approved geographic areas with all appraisal districts within their boundaries, and request data on average land values for each geographic area.
The data have now been received from the appraisal districts, and inserted into the state prescribed formulas to determine the fees. Fees will be adjusted annually based on the consumer price index, and the average land values are reset every ten years. The current and proposed fees are listed below.
Current Fee Schedule
| Current fees apply citywide | |
| Amount | |
| High Density | $3,801.53 |
| Medium Density | $4,919.63 |
| Low Density | $6,261.34 |
| Hotel motel | $2,372.15 |
New Fee Schedule
| Geographic Area | Per Unit Residential Formula | Per Hotel Key Formula | |
| CBD | 0.005 x CBD avg value / 40 | 0.004 x CBD avg value / 40 | |
| Urban | 0.005 x Urban avg value / 4 | 0.004 x Urban avg value / 4 | |
| Suburban | 0.005 x Suburban avg value / 1 | 0.004 x Suburban avg value / 1 | |
| Geographic Area | Average value per acre | ||
| CBD* | $17,631,029 | ||
| Urban* | $4,657,575 | ||
| Suburban** | $1,363,105 | ||
| Geographic Area | Per Unit Fee | Per Hotel Key Fee | |
| CBD | $2,203.88 | $1,763.10 | |
| Urban | $5,821.97 | $4,657.58 | |
| Suburban | $6,815.53 | $5,452.42 |
* Values provided by Travis County Appraisal District November 30, 2023.
** Values provided by Travis County Appraisal District, Hays County Appraisal District, and Williamson County Appraisal District October 5 and 9, 2023. Average values across the three Counties are prorated in accordance with HB 1526, Sec. 212.209 (d).