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Community members got a chance to provide input on the new Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan for Dripping Springs at an open house on Jan. 17.
The event, which was held at Dripping Springs Ranch Park, featured large charts outlining various potential features for the current park properties. Participants were asked to place stickers in the grids to indicate their preferences for improvements.
“I’m glad to see the city inviting residents out to weigh in on the development plans,” resident Justin Allen said. “This is a nice setup.”
He said one of the options he was interested in was the option for new mountain bike trails. Lori McGuire Allen said she saw a few other ideas that appealed to her.
“I’m excited about the stargazing areas and the photography,” she said.
The master plan is intended as a guide for policy decisions. It will help the city prioritize and balance different demands and opportunities. It could be used to evaluate future land acquisitions, park improvements, and other expenditures of public funds.
Quite a few attendees came out to the open house to advocate for public pickleball courts. Among them were Ewan Mctiernan and Isaac Duhaney, juniors at Dripping Springs High School and cofounders of the high school’s pickleball club.
“With Dreamland closing down recently so abruptly, we don’t have anywhere to play, and these public courts would help our club a lot,” Mctiernan said. “Seeing all the representation from pickleball players that I played with at the Y and at Dreamland gave me a lot of hope that we’ll get some public courts.”
Duhaney said that everyone at the open house was very nice, and it felt like a really good place to talk about his concerns.
“It’s kind of fun to talk to the higher-ups of the town and see that they are so down to earth, and they are willing to help us out with the pickleball stuff and other other infrastructure in the parks,” Duhaney said. “I go to Founders Park a lot, and one of the things that they mentioned was that they might be putting up new lights there. I’ve been wanting that for a while.”
There will be quite a few more opportunities for area residents to weigh in on the master plan. The city wants to make sure that the vision continues to be community-driven, and that it provides strong support for parks, recreation, the arts and environmental education. One of the biggest ways the city is aiming to achieve that is by getting as many residents as possible to complete a survey.
“The survey is being mailed to all residents in city limits here in the next week or so,” Andrew Binz, Director Parks & Community Services, said. “That same survey is also available online.”
The survey, which takes about 15-20 minutes, is open to anyone in the greater Dripping Springs area. Everyone who completes it will be entered into drawing for a $500 Visa gift card. The survey can be found online at https://drippingspringssurvey. org and will be available for a couple of weeks.
At the open house, friends Andrea Cain, Harmony Bingham and Michael Abels showed up with pickleball paddles in hand, ready to rally for their cause. Abels noted that there are no pickleball courts for public use in Dripping Springs or in the ETJ, and it would be a great benefit to the community to have them. Bingham agreed.
“I want to say that pickleball has been life changing,” Bingham said. “It can attract all ages, young, old and everyone in between. It’s fulfilling not only physically but also mentally and socially. We need pickleball courts!”
Cain said that the number of people who came out to ask for pickleball courts shows how the game can bring everyone together.
“We like to work together and get things done. It brings a good positive vibe to everybody,” Cain said. “That’s how I met all my friends when I moved here. We gotta keep it going.”
Residents Jan Wesson and Mary Beth Alsdorf came to the open house mostly to see the plans for Dripping Springs Ranch Park.
“We want to make sure that it continues to be used for horses predominantly,” Wesson said. “For instance, the trails. I would like to see them go back to just being horse or pedestrian. Then hopefully the bikes go to the new parks that they’ve made, because it’s a problem to have the two together.”
Alsdorf said she did like the concept of having benches, water fountains and shade structures along the paths in the parks.
“I also like all the ideas about learning about conservation and water conservation,” Alsdorf said. “And I liked maybe having some kind of classes about beekeeping, or wildlife and birds.”
The Parks & Community Services Department will have a booth at Founder’s Day with more information about the master plan, and they will also be having another open house on May 8.
