Walk the Dog Ranch loop at Garey Park this month and you will hit fencing three separate times. The middle run is closed while crews rebuild it. The equestrian center past the ponds is gated off entirely, trails included. Head toward the back of the property, where the disc golf course and skate ranch are supposed to go, and you will find more construction tape than grass.
For a city park, that is unusual. Most municipal renovations move in phases, closing one corner while the rest of the park stays open, so residents lose access to a single amenity at a time rather than half the property at once. Garey Park is not doing that. And the reason has less to do with construction logistics than with a five year clock written into a dead man's will.
The Clock Is in Jack Garey's Will
Jack and Cammy Garey donated the 525 acre ranch along the South San Gabriel River to the city back in 2004, and Garey Park opened to the public in June 2018. When Jack Garey passed away in 2022, the park was named a beneficiary in his will, with $20 million earmarked for further improvements. That money sits with the Chisholm Trail Community Foundation, and the city draws against it like a grant, submitting expenses for reimbursement as construction proceeds.
The will attached a condition to the gift: the city has five years from Garey's passing to put the money to work, which puts the deadline at March 2027. That is the piece most residents walking the trails do not know. It is also the piece that explains why the equestrian center, the Dog Ranch, the Play Ranch, and the future disc golf course are all torn up in the same calendar year instead of one after another. There is no time to stage this the normal way.
Parks and Recreation Director Kimberly Garrett described the project at last year's groundbreaking as a continuation of Garey's original intent for the land.
"Garey's vision for this park was to create a space where people could connect with nature, and Phase 2 of this project brings that vision to life with exciting new amenities."
The Gift Doesn't Cover the Whole Bill
The $20 million from Garey's will is generous, but it is not the full cost. By the time 90 percent of the design work was finished, the city's own estimate for Phase 2 construction had climbed to $23.8 million, meaning Georgetown is covering roughly $3.8 million out of its own budget to close the gap. That detail matters if you have wondered whether this is simply the city spending someone else's money on a whim. It is not. The city chose to add to the gift rather than scale the project down to fit it.
What's Actually Open Right Now
The most recent public status update from the city, posted in April, breaks down like this for anyone planning a visit:
| Area | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Dog Ranch | Open in sections | Middle section closed for rebuilding; the remaining small-dog section is limited to dogs under 30 pounds |
| Equestrian center and trails | Fully closed | Crews are redoing arena drainage and replacing the old cobblestone walkways with a harder surface for horses |
| Play Ranch | Partially open | The Preakness, Belmont, and Triple Crown C pavilions can be rented up to four weeks out; other pavilion seating is first-come, first-served |
| Disc golf course and skate ranch | Under construction | Not yet open to the public |
| Garey House | Reopened | Closed May through September 2025 for an expansion that grows indoor capacity from 125 to 200 |
If you have not been out to the park since last spring, the Garey House reopening is probably the biggest visible change. It is also the one closure that has already resolved, which is worth remembering when you read the rest of this list. Construction here moves in waves, not all at once and not forever.
The Opening Date Already Slipped Once
Back when officials broke ground on Phase 2 in March 2025, the public expectation was that residents would see new amenities by spring 2026. That is not what happened. The city's own tracker, last updated in April, still listed the disc golf course and skate ranch as under construction, with a revised target window of late summer or early fall 2026.
That window is closing right now. If you walk past the back of the property this month and the fencing is still up, that is not a surprise. It means the project has already slipped once from its original timeline, and the current target is the one to watch rather than assume. Anyone planning to bring a group out for the new 18-hole disc course would do well to check the city's live improvements page before making the trip rather than relying on a date they saw months ago.
The Park Never Actually Stopped
None of this has paused the calendar of things Garey Park already does well. The Live on the Lawn concert series ran through the summer on the lawn at Garey House, with local acts like Los Desechos and Deer Fellow playing sets alongside food trucks such as Taconmaye, JC's Kettle Corn, Ricky B's Concessions, and Frio's Gourmet Pops, plus beer and wine from Mimi's Party Palace. Just two days ago, on September 5, park staff and volunteers ran a Pollinator BioBlitz, asking visitors to log plant and wildlife sightings through the iNaturalist app as part of a campaign backed by the National Recreation and Park Association. And an end-of-summer swim party for dogs, called K9 Kerplunk, has become a fixture of the late-summer calendar at the park's splash areas.
None of that required the disc golf course to be finished or the equestrian trails to be open. It is a reminder that a construction zone and a functioning neighborhood park are not opposites here. Both are true at the same time.
What This Means If You Live Next Door
Garey Park sits directly against Escalera Ranch, close enough that residents there treat it as an extension of their own yard rather than a destination they drive to. For anyone in that position, the practical takeaway is patience with an expiration date attached. The city has to spend the rest of Garey's gift by March 2027, which means the current wave of closures is not open-ended. Expect the fencing to keep moving through the fall and into next year, expect a few more delays like the one that already pushed disc golf past its original spring target, and expect a finished park, cabins, amphitheater, and all, sometime before that deadline forces the issue.
In the meantime, the smartest move is checking the city's own improvements page before planning a visit around a specific amenity, rather than assuming last year's estimate still holds.
If you are weighing what it is actually like to live beside a park mid-renovation, or you are curious what else is happening around Escalera Ranch and Georgetown right now, Marion Lamantia knows this stretch of Williamson County well enough to give you the current picture, not the outdated one. Reach out anytime to talk through what is really going on in the neighborhood.
