Contact: Michael L. Warden or Anthony P. de Bruyn, (512) 499-4363

Date: July 14, 2006

UT System News Release

UT Regents Create Task Force to Plan for Future Uses of Brackenridge Tract

AUSTIN – The University of Texas System Board of Regents announced today (July 14) the creation of a special task force to examine future uses of land in Austin known as the “Brackenridge Tract.” The task force is charged by the regents to review and identify facts and issues that impact use of the land, identify alternatives and make recommendations concerning the land’s best use.

Regents’ Chairman James R. Huffines announced creation of the task force in a meeting of the board in Austin and appointed Larry Temple to lead the review. Temple, an Austin attorney, is a graduate of UT Austin and the UT School of Law. He is a former chairman of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, a trustee of the UT Law School Foundation, a distinguished alumnus of UT Austin, and a recipient of the Regent’s Santa Rita award for his distinguished service to higher education.

Almost 500 acres of land along the Colorado River were donated in 1910 by George W. Brackenridge of San Antonio, a former UT regent, for the benefit of The University of Texas at Austin. Today the tract is approximately 350 acres of undeveloped and developed land that includes a municipal golf course, UT Austin housing for students, a biological field laboratory for the campus, and various commercial buildings and enterprises on property leased from the university.

Huffines said an additional 8 to 10 members from the campus, Austin community and UT System Administration are expected to be named to the task force soon and hopes the committee will present its findings and recommendations to UT System regents by June 2007.

Map of Brackenridge Tract
Regent Frank C. Erwin Jr.’s, Review of the History of the Tract (July 1973)
November 2005 Board presentation/powerpoint by Jim Wilson, UT Austin
Webcast archive of Wilson presentation (Windows Media Player for viewing)
Larry Temple biography