Horseshoe Ridge — a proposed 201-site, 30-cabin RV resort — requested a permit for up to 4.5 million gallons of water per year from the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District. Despite local property owners protesting the application, the permit was approved earlier this month.
The RV resort will be on a 30-acre site at the intersection of Ranch Road 12 and Old Oaks Ranch Road, less than ten miles south of Dripping Springs. Four buildings will be added to the property, including a welcome center, amenity center, washateria and water pump station. Phase One of the permit will allow for 8.5 acre feet of water per year; Phase Two will allow for up to 12 acre feet of water per year and phase three will allow for the full 14 acre feet of water, which amounts to around 4.5 million gallons, per year.
The application estimates that at 100 percent occupancy, the resort would have 347 total occupants, assuming 1.5 people per RV. There are also plans for a 70-foot by 56-foot swimming pool with a beach entry.
“Our vision for Horseshoe Ridge is to build an upscale resort for hard working families to have access to the Texas Hill Country,” said Billy Rhyne, owner of Horseshoe Ridge RV Resort. “Ultimately, we want to provide a fun, safe, clean environment for these folks to make a lasting and joyous memory.”
Rhyne mentioned that, while there are RV Parks in Wimberley, they are almost exclusively aimed at long-term renters. His facility, he said, would not be.
The estimated 4.5 million gallons of water use per year comes from assuming 54.11 gallons of water will be used per unit each day over the entire year. Rhyne said that figure is inclusive of all the water use at the facility, including the swimming pool and washateria.
The proposed resort is located in the Jacob’s Well Groundwater Management Zone, which comes along with additional restrictions. Rhyne said they drilled wells for Horseshoe Ridge into the Lower Trinity Aquifer to comply with those additional regulations. He also said his team has worked extensively with the HTGCD to show that the pumping will have “zero effect” on Jacob’s Well or surrounding wells. This included drilling an observation well into the Middle Trinity, where surrounding wells and Jacob’s Well get their water, which showed no impact from the required testing of the wells, according to Rhyne.
“I made the decision that we needed that data as well…” Rhyne said. “We did three different tests. We pumped a total of 250,000 gallons of water.”
“The district came out many many times to see what we were doing…” he continued. “Upon completion of the pump testing, we compiled our data, which showed that across 250,000 gallons of water, there was absolutely zero effect on the Middle Trinity observation well.”
In addition to the groundwater that would be used for the site, there are two 20,000 gallon rainwater collection systems that will be installed and a reuse permit that will allow all of the greywater from the washateria to be treated and used for irrigation.
The resort will run on an on-site sewage facility, using an aerobic system with drip irrigation. According to the maintenance contract submitted for the sewage facility, there are no aquifer recharge features within 150 feet of the proposed site.
“We are putting in a high end treatment system, and we will follow all of the rules and regulations not only that Hays County requires but that the state requires,” Rhyne said.
Rhyne also stated that the facility would follow International Dark-Sky Association rules, and they would be installing a deceleration lane southbound on Ranch Road 12 after working with the Texas Department of Transportation.
The groundwater conservation district heard discussion on the application at a May meeting. Two nearby property owners attempted to file a formal protest to the permit application, finally settling the issue with the resort.
“The applicant came in with requests that most people would not consider realistic, and through a long process of negotiation we were able to get the amount of requested water down to something that the district feels was responsible and adequate for what the developer wanted,” said Charlie Flatten, general manager of the HTGCD. “I was really happy with the amount of collaboration that the applicant and the protestants were able to have with each other. They came to a settlement agreement that everyone agreed was respectful of the resource.
“We had a developer that was very receptive to the community's concerns and was willing to do what was possible to mitigate the community’s concerns,” he continued. “The system worked like it should have.”
Flatten said the phased permit was approved because it lawfully fit within district rules.
“It was approved the way it was approved to protect the aquifer against an over allocation of water for an unbuilt asset,” he explained. “We didn’t want to allocate the water if the project was never going to be completed. We are trying to be conservative about how we allocate our water.”
The first phase of the resort would include 124 slips for RVs as well as welcome center, amenity center, washateria and water pump station and beach-entry swimming pool. Phase two would serve an additional 77 slips and phase three would all for the construction of an additional 30 yurts or cabins.
“I took a hardline approach in the preconstruction and design phase to make sure that we did every possible thing we could in terms of water conservation,” Rhyne said. “We are really embracing water conservation and implementing various rainwater collection systems. We’ve done our utmost to ensure we are here to conserve water.
“We are the first ones (under the new Jacob’s Well Groundwater Management Zone) in the Lower Trinity as a public water system,” he added. “The data showed what the data showed, and the district staff agreed and they recommended the permit based on the data.”
Flatten said that if that data shows there are issues in the future, HTGCD has options.
“The district has recourse if a permit that has an intended purpose in a specific aquifer is damaging an aquifer it was not intended to influence,” Flatten said. “That recourse would have to be tailor made to whatever the negative impact is.”
Following the approval of the water permit, Rhyne said that he had the necessary permits for construction from the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality and the Texas Department of Transportation to begin construction, but he is still working with Hays County Development Services. He estimated that construction could begin on the property as early as a month away and would take around a year to complete.
A county official said that the RV resort still had to determine how they would handle wastewater on site and it could be a county system or a statepermitted system.
Beyond water usage, there are other environmental factors with the proposal that have raised concern.
“If that site was to be built out on county subdivision rules there would only be five homes built on it and approximately 50 gallons of water per acre,” David Baker with the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association said. “What Horseshoe Ridge will do will be over 600 gallons per acre, so the district needs to look at their rules in terms of keeping equity in water use. There are other concerns with the wastewater treatment and stormwater and the density of that development. They are above the springs there that feed the spring that is right below the site as well as the traffic and the intensity of land use is a concern there for the neighbors that are downstream.”
“I hope that [Rhyne] will continue to work with the neighbors and the watershed association to try and minimize the impacts of that development and take seriously the concerns that have been brought up by the watershed and the neighbors in the area and engage with us to try and continue to mitigate those,” he continued. “It is a very high density project and will set a precedent.”
Rhyne stated he knew that he would have to show his commitment to developing the property with the environment in mind during the construction process but that he was willing to continue to do so.
For more information about Horseshoe Ridge RV Resort, or to pre-book, visit horseshoeridgerv. com.
For more about Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, visit haysgroundwater. com. Updated aquifer and surface water conditions are also available on the conservation district's website.
