Dripping Springs City Council granted two moratorium waivers to developers of a Hays Street subdivision and developers of a project at 4400 W. Hwy 290. at a Feb. 1 meeting.
The development at 4400 W. U.S. 290 is a 4-acre site located 5 miles west of Dripping Springs in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Since the property is outside of city limits, city staff determined planning efforts were unlikely to affect land use regulations on the property.
The project consists of seven commercial buildings and would be served by on-site septic, therefore not impacting the city’s wastewater system, staff said. A lack of wastewater capacity was the primary cause of the development moratorium’s adoption in November.
Tejas Homes LLC will develop the Hays Street subdivision, located at 102 S. Bluff St. The property is 1.8 acres and will house six single-family residences.
The Hays Street subdivision will be served by the city’s wastewater. The developer requested three wastewater living unit equivalents to build the first three homes. Living unit equivalents, or LUEs, are defined as the water usage that would typically be produced by a single-family residence located in a typical subdivision.
The city of Dripping Springs will negotiate a wastewater utility agreement with the subdivision. The requested LUEs will only be approved after the second irrigation field at Caliterra, which will provide 500 LUEs for the city, is operational. No building permits will be issued until that point.
The 4400 W. U.S. 290 development was approved by all six members of the City Council, while Mayor Pro Tem Taline Manassian opposed the Hays Street subdivision development. Manassian has expressed concern several times within the past month that the temporary moratorium is not preventing enough development.
Council will vote to extend or end the moratorium in late February.
