LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
There is wisdom in evaluating one’s relationships by paying attention to whether the intention of an individual or entity is to “use” you or to “care” about you. This is what I tell my children. For instance, when I presented my plan to the city council to turn the ugly retaining wall on RR12 by the Community Center into a faux rock mural similar to rock buildings around town, it wasn’t about me. It was about Wimberley. The late Bill & MF Johnson, historically our oldest citizens, were at the meeting ready to protest a possibly egocentric artwork—but then became the first to approve. I painted in the July heat with wonderful support, as citizens cheered me on.
My question is whether the developer, Jack Eure has come to “use” Wimberley to make money with his Citaspel village development (residences priced at $200K to $2Million ea. ), or to “care” about Wimberley with this project, which he claims is a unique “conservation sustainable use” of the quiet countryside property?
I followed the Dripping Springs City Council and P&Z meetings, and learned that the “permitted” subdivisions all had large conservancy dedicated parklands. That city is now in a development moratorium from over-development. Eure and consultant Will Conley are pitching the same strat egy, which seems to me like opening the door to a policy that has already consumed Dripping.
It is not zoned R1 or R2, but RA. It is already agzoned for wildlife. Eure desires to change the zoning to WPDD (Wimberley Planned Development District).
A “Little Marfa” shopping center is planned along a portion of RR12 that Will Conley told me in 2010, (when he was our Hays Co.Commissioner), was to remain a greenway or parkway into Wimberley.
There will be constant flashing lights and sirens if the fire dept. locates next to peaceful neighbors. Wimberley P&Z blocked permitting a Sonic based partially on bothering neighbors with circulating headlights. Citaspel has one large circular drive around the village along a very exposed upper slope.
There will be 3-5 years of building/noise once permitted. How will Blair House B&B do business?
The conservation area between the shopping center and compacted village will be used partially for a septic dispense field, if septic systems are approved.
Placing the condensed housing on the upper slope requires cutting into the soft crumbly limestone karst, importing compact fill, and building retaining walls. It is an unlikely site for wastewater removal, so Eure says he will import soil for septic systems (since there is no soil to speak of). Clearly an environmental impact expert is needed. The program director of Hill Country Alliance, Cliff Kaplan, has recommended Lauren Ross of Glenrose Engineering as an excellent source. And we have our own David Baker and Robin Gary.
I was at the Oct. 27 and Dec. 2 meetings to listen to Eure and Conley promote the Citispel subdivision. These meetings were to introduce neighbors to the plan—neighbors who Eure now refers to as “NIMBYS and BANANAS.” The subdivision will not interfere with my view of a trailer park, so I am not sure where I fit in, except as a “prophet of DROUGHT.” That means I really care about the population explosion since the 2007-2011 drought crisis in our countryside. It will happen again, so our water is precious. TESPA successfully tackled the EP invasion of Rolling Oaks, and I hope they will consider this development who shares my Trinity Aquifer water in a way that appears to be an extravagant use of this valuable resource.
I do not have answers to exactly where the Wimberley Water Supply will dig their well for the Citaspel community. Possibly my backyard? There are gardens, grass, water features, a community pool, and a horse barn to supply, as well as 57 households, a cafe, and retail shops.
Eure said the residents will have the “option” of rainwater catchment, and that the houses will be equipped for rain harvesting (does this mean gutters? plumbing for catchment?). Yet there is no blueprint evidence of these water tanks (at least 15K gallons needed per household) built into the plan. And I wonder how much more compact fill, retaining walls, and limestone karst cutting into the slope it would take to include these tanks for such dense row housing? A lot of weight on the slope. Tanks would compromise the look of Eure’s village. The only ones shown on the blueprint are small cisterns for gardening water features. There is one for shops. None for a swimming pool or barn.
This town is a tough nut to crack. But why would anyone want to do that? Let me be the first to welcome Eure and his family to build a home, horse barn, maybe a few guest cottages, and offer trail rides—Wimberley visitors would enjoy riding horses. In this way, he would truly seem to “care” about Wimberley, as one of ours.
Sharon Carter