Last week, the Save Our Springs Alliance launched a new Web site, www.stopcypress.com, in response to what it believes may be another Hill Country polluter bearing the Cypress name. SOS fears that plans by Cypress Real Estate Development to develop 2,700 acres in the Barton Springs Recharge Zone, soon to be called the Rock Creek subdivision, will seriously threaten the health of Barton Springs and the Edwards Aquifer. According to SOS, the Lower Colorado River Authority has approved plans to extend a surface water line to the property where Cypress hopes to build 1,250 to 2,700 new homes. “We are calling on Cypress to sell its entire tract to a conservation buyer at a reasonable price,” said SOS Executive Director Bill Bunch. “Their development plans, if not drastically scaled back, will result in thousands of additional vehicle trips on Camp Ben McCullough road, not to mention millions of gallons of sewage over the recharge zone.” The 2,700-acre Cypress property contains over 150 known “recharge features,” such as caves, sinkholes, and fractures where water plunges underground into the Edwards Aquifer. The StopCypress.com site allows visitors to make e-mail appeals directly to Cypress CEO Steve Clark and includes video animation of the location, proposed new roads, and predicted traffic increases associated with the development. Referring to a former SOS foe, bankrupt Circle C Ranch developer Gary Bradley, Bunch said, “Steve Clark and Cypress can do the right thing and sell to a conservation buyer … or they can be the next Gary Bradley and spend the next 20 years battling a broad community consensus opposing suburban sprawl in the Barton Springs watershed.” Clark couldn’t be reached as of press time.
Oops! The following correction ran in our March 18, 2005 issue: In last week’s “SOS Takes on Cypress Real Estate Development”[News, March 11], we got the company name wrong. The actual formal name is Cypress Real Estate Advisors. The Chronicle regrets the error.
This article appears in March 11 • 2005.