Dripping Springs) - Dripping Springs in Hays County is changing. The biggest indicator of growth is a proposed 55-acre commercial development at the southeast corner of US 290 and RM 12. The retail project, by developer Barshop and Oles Co., would be anchored by an
H-E-B grocery store and a Home Depot. The city’s Planning and Zoning Committee will review the proposal next month and is expected to approve it, City Administrator Michelle Fischer said. Master-planned residential projects are popping up along U.S. 290. These include: *Belterra, a 1,600-acre community at Trinity Hills Drive and U.S. 290 by California-based developer Makar Properties. It has about 300 homes and will have 2,000 homes within five years. Prices range from $200,000 to $900,000. *Highpointe, a 740-acre project at Sawyer Ranch Road and U.S. 290 by Michigan-based developer Pulte Homes. It will have 1,000 homes in four years and has sold 160 homes since opening in September. Prices range from $250,000 to $550,000. *Headwaters of Barton Creek, a 1,366-acre project three miles from RM 12 at U.S. 290 by Austin developer Dick Rathgeber. About 1,000 acres will be preserved as parkland, with 1,000 homes clustered on the remaining 366 acres. Prices range from $180,000 to $600,000. The project is expected to break ground in the second quarter of next year. In all, ten housing developments that are either new subdivisions or older developments that still have significant building potential were identified in 2005 in the last demographic study by the Dripping Springs Independent School District. When they’re finished, these projects will account for more than 6,200 residential units. Between 2003 and 2005, home sales increased by about 50 percent. Dripping Springs is only 3.3 square miles, with a population of about 1,500. But it supports an extraterritorial jurisdiction that stretches as far as 12 miles outside the city limits, with a population more than 25,000. It is also part of the Edwards Aquifer contributing zone and the Barton Creek headwaters. The city is taking steps toward securing its first centralized sewer system. The first phase of the $9.4 million system will serve existing developments in the city’s core starting in 2007. City officials also have passed ordinances regulating subdivisions, site development, parkland dedication, conservation development and water quality protection; setting guidelines for preserving as much open space as possible to protect the area’s sensitive ecosystems.
[Austin American-Statesman]