Officials present on State of the City at Chamber lunch

Officials from Dripping Springs gave a report on the State of the City at the monthly Chamber of Commerce luncheon on April 24. After a welcome from Mayor Bill Foulds Jr., the meeting opened with a report from Planning Director Tory Carpenter, who addressed upcoming growth for the area.

'There are a lot of single family homes coming to Dripping Springs in the next 0-5 years,” Carpenter said. “With Double L in particular, we are looking at 2400 single family residences, with some multi-family in there as well. For Wild Ridge, which is just south of there, they are bringing about 960.”

There are several smaller residential developments, as well as a built-to-rent community called New Growth.

“It looks and feels like a single family community, but it's managed by one rental agency, almost like an apartment complex,” Carpenter said. That development is on Roger Hanks Parkway, near the tax office. Another property under development is Ariza Springs, over by the Polo Club.

'We've gotten a lot of phone calls about the construction going on over there,” Carpenter said. “It's a pretty big site that was cleared. That is an apartment complex, right around 300 units.'

In the historic district, there are several changes coming as well.

'In the Mercer Street area, at the old historic Short Mama's home on Wallace right off Mercer, they are opening a bistro at that location,' Carpenter said. 'They are going through the permitting process.'

The old rental facility downtown is also going to be a restaurant. It’s called Roxie’s, and it’s the same business owner as the Salt Lick.

“They are opening a home cooking restaurant, and they are going through permitting, too,' Carpenter said.

Carpenter also said that HEB is in the planning stages for a new store right adjacent to the existing one. It will replace the smaller building.

'Right now they're telling us about 125,000 square feet for that area,” Carpenter said. “So it's a pretty large scale store to fit the needs of the growing community.'

The next topic on the agenda was the new tree preservation and landscape ordinance for new developments. It protects the larger oaks that are 18 inches in diameter or bigger. It also prohibits clear cutting of entire sites.

'Dripping Springs has experienced a lot of growing pains moving forward, and one thing that we heard a lot from the community is that they want the character of the Hill Country preserved,” Carpenter said. “A big part of that is tree preservation.'

Carpenter also gave an update on transportation plans. He said that the city's focus is on general improvements to existing roads and on new connections.

The general idea is that the new developments will build connections that prevent or alleviate bottlenecks.

“Roger Hanks is one that opened in the past,” Carpenter said. “It was signalized in the last year. This is going around the high school, and really provides a great relief from that 290 and Ranch Road 12 intersection.'

Another road construction project that will impact the community involves the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of 150 and Ranch Road 12. This is not a city project, but is a cooperative effort between Hays County and Tx-DOT.

“We have construction starting at the end of 2025, right south of Caliterra,” Carpenter said. “They have acquired the property for a roundabout there.”

Carpenter also gave an update on the construction of U.S. 290. He acknowledged that many local residents were involved with the TxDOT public hearings about that plan, which showed a pretty heavy expansion of U.S. 290.

'At this point, they've heard from the community, and they're going back to the drawing board and looking at some other options,” Carpenter said. “We're not exactly sure what direction to expect on this, but just keep an eye out for future releases and public meetings from TxDOT.'

As for pedestrian projects, Carpenter noted that the city recently completed the sidewalks by Dripping Springs Middle School. That connects the middle school to the high school and some of the nearby neighborhoods, giving students the option to walk to school.

'On Mercer, you can expect a project connecting the existing Mercer Street sidewalks all the way over to Roger Hanks, essentially so you can walk from downtown over by HEB,” Carpenter said. “We're expecting construction on that in March or April of this year.'

Although many area residents are eager for a report on the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant, the city still doesn’t have anything new to report.

'This has been going on since 2019, when TCEQ issued the city a permit to expand our existing wastewater treatment plant, allowing more connections to the city wastewater system,” Carpenter said. “An Austin opposition group appealed the granting of that, so that's been basically in a lawsuit since then.”

The case made its way all the way up to the Texas Supreme Court. The city gave oral arguments in October 2024, and they are expecting a final decision by May of 2025.

City Administrator Michelle Fischer was next on the agenda, with a report on the remodel at city hall. Staff members have been temporarily displaced while that is underway. It will include office space to accommodate up to 24 staff members, a bigger kitchen and a break room.

“We've got new flooring and lighting throughout the building,” Fischer said. “We're retaining the large meeting space, where council and commission meetings are. The conference room in front was enlarged as well.”

Downtown public restrooms are also under construction on Mercer Street next to Vintage Soul. Fischer said they hope construction on both projects is completed by April, before Founders Day.

Finally, the Stephenson building is a project that is getting ready to be bid out. They hope to start construction in May or June, and expect it to take about a year to complete. It will have an adjacent parking lot with 76 parking spaces that will be added once construction is done..

“We are completely remodeling it and adding on Parks and Community Services offices,” Fischer said. “It will be a community center where we can have programming and events, it can be rented out, it can be used for performances like music, plays, meetings, receptions and all kinds of things. We're really excited about it coming online.”

Next up was Shawn Cox, Deputy City Administrator, who reported on finances. He said the city experienced a lot of growth in fiscal year 24, and is now up to 64 full-time, inhouse employees.

'Every year, our departments look at what services we are providing,” Cox said. “Part of what we look at is whether we are providing enough staffing to help people who are coming to the city looking for assistance.'

Cox also touched on property taxes and how the process works, noting that appraisals are completed by Hays County Appraisal District. The tax rate is then set by the city council after they receive all the pertinent information.

'When we present the budget to council, and council is looking at the tax rate proposals, they are very aware of any impact that tax rate will have on all of our residents,” Cox said. “I want y'all to know, your council puts us through the wringer. They are looking at that, because they are looking out for y'all.'

For FY 25, Cox said the city did bump the tax rate, but it is still considerably lower than it was two years ago.

Parks and Community Services Director Andrew Binz spoke next, and gave an update on some of the city’s youth programming. Coyote Kids Nature Camp, which used to be only in the summer, has now expanded to cover school breaks and holidays. So has their Tween Scene program. They also saw that after school care was a big need in the community, so they started a new program. It's very small right now, only accepting 12 kids, but they hope to grow it in the future.

Other programs like swimming lessons, archery, camping, and star parties continue to be popular throughout the year.

“Family camping has really increased,” Binz said. “I think we had around ten to twelve families participate in the last one in November.'

Nerf nights, movies in the park, and family roller skate nights have also been really popular, and the weekly Farmers Market continues to be a strong draw.

Binz said that the department continues to present lots of special events as well, such as Eggstravaganza, which is coming up for Easter. Founders Day will follow not long after that.

Park improvements are continuing as well. There’s new signage at Sports and Recreation Park, which Binz said has been a great improvement to the park aesthetically.

“Everything for athletics is looking good going into the spring,” Binz said. “We got some irrigation out there, so the grass is green. We made some improvements to the adult softball field which were much needed.”

The city also added new sidewalk connections at Founders Memorial Park that connect the skating park, pool, playground the Pound House.

“As soon as those sidewalks went in, you saw the bikes, the strollers and the scooters getting all over the park, so that was a great addition,” Binz said.

The parks department is also working on their new master plan, which was covered in last week's issue of the paper. Right now they are gathering community feedback for what residents want to see.

The final update from Parks and Community Services was regarding Rathgeber Natural Resources Park, which consists of 300 acres of pristine Hill Country land at the convergence zones of Barton Creek and Little Barton Creek. The property, which is near Headwaters, was donated by Dick Rathgeber and Rathgeber Investment Company. It doubled the city’s park acreage.

The city adopted a vision plan for Rathgeber park in October. It can be found on the website, along with a virtual tour.

'We had drones and 360 cameras go out there, and you can basically take a quick tour through the park and see what it looks like,” Binz said. 'It's going to take time, but we are making progress on this project.”

Next on the agenda was Lisa Sullivan, People and Communications Director, who touched on some of the special events the city organizes, and who also spoke about the newest community art project.

'For those of you who have not been to downtown Mercer lately, we're excited that we have unveiled the first six stars of our art project in cooperation with the Dripping Springs Art League, HEB, and the Chamber,” Sullivan said.

These stars were designed by local artists. The goal is to add another 10-12 stars this year throughout the community, including in the parks.

Mayor Foulds closed out the luncheon by reminding attendees that much of what the city does relies on the guidance of local volunteers.

“We have eleven boards, and about 120 volunteers who serve on those boards,” Foulds said. “We're always looking for people to fill out applications to serve. This is what drives the city.”