Live in Dove Springs

The Dove Springs and Franklin Park subdivisions were platted in the 1960s on southeast Austin farmland, and the City annexed Dove Springs in 1972 and Franklin Park in 1973. Most of the houses went up in the next few years: of 2,423 single-family houses on the appraisal roll, 2,101 date from the 1970s and 13 from 2010 or later, and 354 of the 447 duplexes from the 1980s. This guide covers the City's Franklin Park planning area: St. Elmo Road down to Williamson Creek, I-35 across to Nuckols Crossing Road, about 2.18 square miles. The name residents use covers more. The Austin Chronicle has drawn Dove Springs from Ben White Boulevard to William Cannon Drive, and the Dove Springs Recreation Center and its district park are across Nuckols Crossing in the City's McKinney planning area.

The price gap with the rest of South Austin is wide. Zillow, which draws its own Franklin Park and counts condominiums, put the typical value at $263,062 in August 2026, against $283,944 a year earlier and $421,071 at the July 2022 peak. The same index had Galindo at $618,096, Bouldin Creek at $830,105, Zilker at $894,665 and the whole city at $497,418; it publishes no Dove Springs of its own. The county's parcel layer states no year for its values, so this guide gives no median assessment. On the 2025 rates a homestead at Franklin Park's figure owes the five taxing units about $3,548 a year, and the same house without the exemption about $5,384. Austin ISD's $140,000 exemption is more than half that value, against a quarter of the city's $560,000 median sale price, so filing for it counts for more here; the citywide arithmetic is on the Austin page.

Most homes are rented, and fewer people live in them than in 2010. The census counted 15,439 residents on the planning area's blocks in 2020, against 16,927 on the same ground in 2010, while the number of homes rose from 4,507 to 4,612. Of 4,403 occupied homes, 2,525 were rented, up from 2,374 of 4,313. About four in five residents were Hispanic both times. The roll shows how little has been rebuilt: 13 houses since 2010, where Zilker, on a smaller stock, has 331.

Read the flood map before anything else. Williamson Creek forms the southwest edge, and the City's fully developed 100-year floodplain covers about 7% of the planning area and more than a tenth of 269 of the 2,423 house lots, most of them on Creek Bend Drive, Brassiewood Drive, Wagon Bend, Hammermill Run and Turnstone Drive. FEMA's 1% annual chance map, the one a lender reads, covers more than a tenth of 55. So most of the lots at risk on the City's map are outside the zone a lender checks. The county's parcel layer lists 37 lots in the City's floodplain here owned by the City, 23 on Teewood Drive and 9 on Creek Bend Drive, most now vacant; the 2002 neighborhood plan records the Teewood purchases.

The Halloween floods and the buyouts are next door. On 31 October 2013 Onion Creek crested at 40.15 feet at US 183, the highest on its gauge's list; five people died, and more than 500 homes in the Dove Springs and Onion Creek areas were damaged. On 30 October 2015 it reached 39.22 feet, and Williamson Creek at Jimmy Clay Road, just downstream of the planning area, set its own highest listed crest, 21.91 feet. The City's 2017 layer of completed flood buyouts lists 849 properties, 802 along Onion Creek south of William Cannon Drive and none inside Franklin Park. Stassney Lane crosses the middle, and since February 2025 MetroRapid 800 has run up South Pleasant Valley Road every 10 minutes by day on weekdays. The H-E-B at I-35 and William Cannon is across the interstate.

Worth knowing before you commit

Check the City's flood map, not only FEMA's

The City's 100-year floodplain covers more than a tenth of 269 house lots here; FEMA's covers 55

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• Look the address up on the City's floodplain viewer as well as FEMA's map before you make an offer
• Ask the seller whether water reached the house in October 2013 or October 2015
• File for the homestead exemption: at this price Austin ISD's $140,000 is more than half the value
• Confirm the elementary: the blocks split between Rodriguez and Houston, and Widén's old zone now goes to Rodriguez and Akins
• Work the tax out on your own price, because the seller's capped value ends with the sale

How Dove Springs got here

• 1942On 19 September the City buys the land for the Del Valle Army Air Base, east of today's planning area, and lends it to the federal government. Renamed Bergstrom Army Air Field in March 1943, it trains crews who fly on D-Day. The land around it is still mostly farms.
• 1960sThe Dove Springs and Franklin Park subdivisions are platted. The streets around Peppertree Parkway and Dove Springs fill first, and the land north of Teri Road follows.
• 1972The City annexes Dove Springs, in the middle of annexing Peppertree in phases from 1970 to 1973, and Franklin Park follows in 1973. Nuckols Crossing Road comes in 1980 and the land along St. Elmo Road in 1983.
• 1970sMost of the houses go up. The appraisal roll dates 2,101 of today's 2,423 single-family houses to the decade, and 354 of its 447 duplexes to the 1980s.
• 1977The City acquires the Williamson Creek East Greenbelt, now 94 acres along the creek at the planning area's southwest edge.
• 1980sA City wastewater plant just east of William Cannon Drive and Pleasant Valley Road overflows, and the smell lasts for years until the plant closes in 1988; the 2002 plan records that property values suffered and absentee ownership rose. The Southeast Corner Alliance of Neighbors forms in response to crime and gangs, and the River City Youth Foundation moves to Southeast Austin in 1985.
• 1992A November bond election pays for the Dove Springs Recreation Center, pool and park and the Southeast library, finished in stages from 1994. The recreation center opens on 28 March 1998.
• 1993Bergstrom Air Force Base closes, and in 1994 the City begins building Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on the site.
• 2000Rodriguez Elementary opens on Franklin Park Drive after several years of lobbying by residents.
• 2002The Council adopts the Southeast Combined Neighborhood Plan on 10 October. It asks for the lots the City bought in the 100-year floodplain along Teewood Drive to be rezoned as open space, and for a hike-and-bike trail along Williamson Creek from I-35 to Pleasant Valley Road.
• 2010The census counts 16,927 residents on the blocks of today's planning area, 14,012 of them Hispanic; 2,374 of 4,313 occupied homes are rented.
• 2013After a night of rain, Onion Creek crests on the morning of 31 October at 40.15 feet at US 183, the highest crest listed for the gauge. Five people die, and more than 500 homes in the Dove Springs and Onion Creek areas are damaged.
• 2015On 30 October Onion Creek reaches 39.22 feet at US 183 and Williamson Creek 21.91 feet at Jimmy Clay Road, the highest crest listed for that gauge. Three people die and about 400 homes in Southeast Austin are damaged or destroyed. The Council authorizes voluntary buyouts of 232 houses along lower Onion Creek.
• 2017The City's layer of completed flood buyouts lists 849 properties: 802 along Onion Creek south of William Cannon Drive and 47 on Williamson Creek west of I-35, and none inside the planning area.
• 2018The recreation center closes in July for an expansion that adds a kitchen, a dance and fitness studio and a covered porch. In April the City moves to buy 50 of 138 flood-prone homes in its next Onion Creek phase, with the other 88 unfunded.
• 2019In December the center is renamed the George Morales Dove Springs Recreation Center, for the Travis County Precinct 4 constable George Morales III.
• 2020The census counts 15,439 residents and 4,612 homes; 2,525 of 4,403 occupied homes are rented, and 12,335 residents are Hispanic.
• 2022Zillow's typical value for Franklin Park peaks at $421,071 in July, against $100,505 in August 2010.
• 2025MetroRapid 800 begins on 23 February along South Pleasant Valley Road, with stations at Stassney Lane, Village Square Drive and William Cannon Drive. On 21 November the school board votes to close ten schools, among them Widén Elementary, whose students go to Rodriguez.
• 2026Zillow's typical value stands at $263,062 in August, against $283,944 a year earlier.

What the map does not show: part of Onion Creek Metro Park is land where houses stood. 466 of the lots on the City's buyout layer now lie inside the park's boundary, and FEMA says bought-out land stays permanent open space.

The free option is the district park's nature walking trail and fields around the recreation center.