Large development proposed near Dripping Springs. Scenic Greens

Developer plans 900 houses and 470 acres of open space

By Kate Miller Morton
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 09, 2006

A residential community encompassing three former ranches west of Dripping Springs has been proposed by a developer seeking to build about 900 houses on 676 acres.

Proposed by local developer James Kerby, Scenic Greens is the first project seeking approval under the city's conservation ordinance. Adopted last year, the ordinance seeks to maintain the area's rural character and small-town charm by requiring, among other things, that developers set aside at least 40 percent of the land for open space and preserve in perpetuity some unique land features such as hilltops and view corridors that would frequently be seen as the most desirable parts to develop.

"It's basically a reverse way of developing a property," Kerby said.

Kerby plans to preserve nearly 70 percent of the land, or 470 acres, for open space.

Slated for the northwest corner of U.S. 290 and McGregor Lane, Scenic Greens would be one of the larger developments built in the sparsely populated hills surrounding the City of Dripping Springs, but it would not be the largest.

The planned 1,500-acre Headwaters at Barton Creek, about two miles east of the intersection of RM 12 and U.S. 290, is slated to have 1,000 houses. The 1,600-acre Belterra on U.S. 290 could have 1,600 houses when fully built, and 1,012 houses are planned in the 740-acre Highpointe of Dripping Springs community off of Sawyer Ranch Road.

Houses in Scenic Greens will start in the low $300,000s and be clustered throughout the property, with many backing up to wooded areas owned by the homeowners association.

More than 470 acres, including hilltops and dense woodlands, will be set aside for open space; as required by the ordinance, all of the land is contiguous.

Kerby plans to service the development with surface water from Dripping Springs Water Supply Corp. and build what is likely to be a drip irrigation wastewater treatment plant. The City of Dripping Springs is negotiating a deal to take over the plant that Kerby would pay to design and build.

Details of such an arrangement have yet to be determined, but Kerby said the development would pay for the system.

"The sticking point is when do we take it over," said Jon Thompson, development coordinator for Dripping Springs. "The city doesn't want it until it's functional, and you have to have so many houses in the system to keep the flows going."

Kerby's proposal is dramatically different from the 180-home subdivision once proposed by KB Home on a 214-acre portion of the site.

The homebuilder's low prices and plans to serve each three-quarter acre-lot with septic tanks drew fierce criticism from nearby residents that eventually killed the project.

Homeowners in the nearby and downstream Blue Creek Ranch subdivision haven't expressed similar opposition to Scenic Greens yet, but they do have concerns, particularly about the wastewater treatment plant.

Neighborhood association board member Doug Wierman, who also sits on the board of the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, wants the city to specifically prohibit the wastewater system from discharging directly into Blue Creek. He's also concerned that the city eventually plans to expand the plant into a regional wastewater system that could serve future developments in the area.

Dripping Springs administrator Michelle Fischer said the city has not discussed expanding the plant into a regional system. City officials and the developer have discussed the possibility of designing and building the plant with more capacity than would be needed for the development, but nothing has been decided.

• Steve Mallett can answer any questions you have about this future development.  Please do not hesitate to call him at (512) 627-7018 or email him at SteveM@MallettIntegrityTeam.com for information about buying a home in Scenic Greens DS.