AUSTIN, Texas -- Efforts to preserve a historic pecan grove in the heart of the Govalle neighborhood in Central Austin have proven successful after years of uncertainty about the orchard's fate. 

What You Need To Know


  • Efforts to preserve historic Central Austin pecan grove have been in place for years

  • Sits on property to be developed for affordable housing 

  • Land will now be split between parkland and development

The decades-old pecan grove sits on 5.15 acres of land owned by the City of Austin that's designated to be developed for affordable housing. 

For years, community members have fought for protections for the pecan grove, and now the Austin Housing Finance Corporation has come to an agreement with the city's Parks and Recreation Department that will eventually turn part of the orchard into a park, leaving the rest of the property for development. 

“The neighborhood used to be all farms and pecan groves. You’ll see some of the row of trees other places, but this is the history. This is what the neighborhood used to be," said Jessica Eley, co-chair of the Govalle Neighborhood Association. “Everyone loves the pecan grove. When the harvest time comes around you can see people harvesting all throughout the neighborhood but especially here.”

And even when it’s not harvesting season, the pecan grove is the neighborhood centerpiece.

“It’s a focal point of the neighborhood. We use it as a park right now anyway, and so the idea of losing it is really sad,” Eley said.

A portion of the Tillery Pecan Grove in Austin, Texas, appears in this image from May 2020. (Niki Griswold/Spectrum News)

The City of Austin owns the land the orchard sits on, and when Eley learned the property is designated to be developed for affordable housing, she rallied her neighbors to protect the grove. 

“I just spread the word and then the neighborhood jumped into action," said Eley. "There’s five acres here. There’s plenty of space to have affordable housing, and a park. It didn’t have to be a fight; it didn’t have to be either-or. But, you know, we were left in limbo for years and years and years.” 

After years without concrete protections for the pecan grove, the city’s giving the orchard’s advocates what they’ve been fighting for. 

PREVIOUS: East Austin Neighborhood Fights to Preserve Pecan Grove

At a public meeting last week, officials told the community that the city’s made an agreement to sell one to two acres of the pecan grove to the Parks and Recreation Department to dedicate as parkland, with the conditions that it have frontage on Tillery Street, and pedestrian access to Charles and Henninger streets. 

“Given the history of it, we knew that preservation of trees on the site generally, and then also specifically the preservation of the pecan orchard piece would be really important to the community," said Travis Perlman, a project coordinator with the Austin Housing Finance Corporation 

“It’s like the best news I’ve had in months," said Eley. "Having a development that saves, preserves this community asset, while also building affordable housing, it’s the dream. It’s the perfect balance.” 

What that might look like still isn’t clear. The city plans to begin receiving design plans for the property from developers this summer, and those plans must include preserving one to two acres of the pecan grove. 

However, how much of the pecan grove will become parkland will depend on the development proposal the city ultimately chooses. 

“We will not be selling the land to the Parks and Recreation Department until after we've selected a winning proposal, and so that would be probably in mid-September of this year," said Perlman.“ We're looking forward to releasing this request for proposal and getting proposals, seeing what those look like and then ultimately, you know, a couple years down the line, hoping that once the parkland piece develops and the affordable housing pieces develop, it’s a project that everybody, including the community, could be proud of.”

Perlman says the city has not yet decided on the criteria for evaluating the proposals, but has released three different scenarios of what designs could look like to get public feedback. 

A portion of the Tillery Pecan Grove in Austin, Texas, appears in this image from May 2020. (Niki Griswold/Spectrum News)

"I think it's incumbent upon our departments, and our organization, to do our best to help make sure that the public understand the different trade-offs associated with, for instance, building single-family ownership housing at higher levels of affordability and how much that may cost to do, versus building multifamily rental units at deep levels of affordability and how that may cost to do," said Perlman. "[Also], what we hope to gain from that is kind of a better and more refined understanding of what the community is really looking for and what they value."

LINK: Tillery Street Affordable Housing Development Project 

Eley says no matter what type of affordable housing development the city chooses, she hopes it saves as much of the pecan grove as possible. 

“Everyone’s excited about having a park. No one wanted to see all the trees being cut down. We’re excited to see the city take responsibility for it. There’s a lot of like habitat restoration that needs to be done, and just some like tender love and care that the trees need," said Eley. "It's very exciting. It's good news. It's good news in a time when there's not a lot of good news.”