Dripping Springs neighbors object to plans for outdoor music venue

Residents of rural Hays County are pushing hard against a planned 5,000-seat outdoor music venue that will sit along a two-lane road and potentially impact water flowing into the Edwards Aquifer.

Plans for the venue emerged last year from California-based Lexor Investments, which is seeking to build the concert venue on 32 acres at 14820 Fitzhugh Road. Residents and local politicos weighed in on the traffic, public safety and environmental concerns at a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality hearing in November related to wastewater plans for the project. The project’s contributing zone plan submitted to TCEQ outlines the projected stormwater runoff impacts on groundwater in the region, with 22 acres of the site converted to impervious cover in large part because of roughly 1,800 planned parking spaces.

Marshall Bowen, an Austin attorney whose family owns the neighboring Shield Ranch, said the combination of traffic and environmental concerns make the area near Dripping Springs inappropriate for a development with the major impact of an amphitheater.

“We’re not at all opposed to development outright. We just are in favor of sensible development in the region that is compatible with the wildlife and the water quality issues,” he said. “if you’ve ever driven Fitzhugh Road, it’s windy, it’s dark, there are low water crossings, and it’s really about the worst possible road to build something like this on … and we have real concerns about the runoff of stormwater because of the amount of impervious cover.”

In November, Bowen and others raised objections to portions of Lexor’s wastewater plans for the site, arguing it was too conservative in estimating the treatment needs for thousands of visitors concentrated in a few visits per week. TCEQ hasn’t ruled on the wastewater issue yet, but in a subsequent notice of deficiencies to be corrected it did raise questions about the wastewater flow estimates, along with some geological and agronomy concerns that needed to be addressed before a decision is made.

Bill LeClerc, director of real estate development and investments for Lexor, said those revisions have been made and resubmitted to the state with no substantial changes that would endanger the project. “They were fairly straightforward and not doing anything that I would call major with the wastewater design on the site,” he said.

On the substantial amount of impervious cover, LeClerc said he and his partners are examining how to reduce the impacts of the parking needed on-site.

“Part of what we’re trying to work through with our engineering is what types of alternatives there are from a surfacing standpoint to avoid covering it in pavement, which is not our intent, since we think what will come back from TCEQ is what materials would be best to best treat the runoff and handle it on-site. We’ve been looking at alternatives but don’t have the options yet for what’s going to be the best alternatives.”

Bowen said state environmental regulations are the most substantial opportunity to force Lexor to adjust or abandon its plans, since counties have almost no oversight on land use.

“Our ultimate hope would be that the developers realize that this is not a realistic location for this venue and look elsewhere for this project. Our efforts are focused right now on demonstrating to the TCEQ … there is a chance that the agency says we’re not going to approve this because you can’t fit this project on this space.”

Project rendering obtained via TCEQ.

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