The city approved development plans for the project in 2012 but the plan has been amended since. As of September, developers removed a proposed business park on the west side of RR 12 from the masterplan. That area will instead become single-family homes with lot sizes in the 60- to 70-foot range, said Seth Mearig, a representative for developer BGE Inc., at a Sept. 7 Dripping Springs City Council meeting.
Commercial development for the master-planned community remains clustered along RR 12, Mearig said.
The housing project is large enough that it might require an additional elementary school be built, Mearig said.
Mearig said the developers will also pay for the construction of a two-lane road that will flow through the development and up to Hwy. 290. By 2025, the developers will update the road to four lanes, which will reduce traffic on RR 12 by about half, Mearig said.
Homeowners of the proposed houses would not pay property taxes to the city. The project will sit in Dripping Springs' extraterritorial jurisdiction, a buffer zone outside the city's limits where the city has limited regulatory power over development factors such as drainage.
The average number of homes per acre will be 1.3, making it lower density than several neighborhoods in Dripping Springs, Mearig said.
The total parkland will make up 500 acres, with a combination of public and private parks, Mearig said.
