Chalk one up for the Blue Creek Property Owners Association in Dripping Springs. The group won its first development battle last week when a residential builder yanked its plans for the proposed Estancia subdivision — even after winning the City Council’s preliminary blessing.
“You could say we won the battle but not the war,” said Doug Wierman, a Blue Creek POA board member. The builder, KB Home, had planned a high-density development — roughly 160 homes on 200 acres — at the headwaters of Blue Creek, a tributary of Onion Creek, near Highway 290 West and McGregor Lane.
Wierman, whose POA had never before organized against a development, said the residents studied the proposed plat and enlisted outside help to bolster their argument that the development was simply not environmentally sound. Despite that evidence, the Dripping Springs City Council last week approved KB Home’s preliminary plat on a 4-1 vote.
No one expects the raw land to go undeveloped for long, however. “We know it’s going to be developed — if not by KB Home then by somebody else,” Wierman said. Given that reality, he said he hopes the property will be a low-density development similar to the Blue Creek neighborhood. “Our goal,” he said, “is to protect the water quality of Blue Creek and Onion Creek.”
This article appears in June 20 • 2003.
