Megan Navarro
DRIPPING SPRINGS — Dripping Springs City Council and the Dripping Springs ISD Board of Trustees have entered into two interlocal agreements (ILA) related to Rathgeber Natural Resource Park.
In 2020, approximately 300 acres for the park were donated to the city and then, the district applied for permits for Wildwood Springs Elementary School in 2024. Around that time, the city had identified the district’s property as the most logical access point to Rathgeber, leading to conversations with the district on coordination for realignment of access, according to city of Dripping Springs planning director Tory Carpenter.
The first interlocal agreement — initially presented at the Tuesday, April 21, Dripping Springs City Council meeting — is for the road and easement.
Phase 1 of the road has already been constructed by DSISD as primarily bus or delivery access, but not the main entrance, and it was designed to allow for further extension to the north to Rathgeber, which is identified as Phase 2 that will be constructed by the city.
With the ILA, the city would be able to construct a public road, including utility extension, drainage, sidewalks and lighting. The main restriction is prohibited parking in the area, primarily because of safety and access issues related to the school.
“The goal and the main outcome of this is the school district granting an easement, most likely classified as a right-of-way easement, that would function for all intents and purposes as city right-of-way for purposes of accessing Rathgeber [Natural Resource] Park,” Carpenter explained. “The benefit of doing it as an easement is the city can outline specific terms of any restrictions or any concerns or considerations that may be tied with that area.”
The exact boundary of the easement will be determined after the schematic design of Phase 2, Carpenter said, as well as another exhibit — known as form of easement — with specific terms of the ILA embedded into the easement document that will be inserted at a later date.
“I know the boundaries of the easement aren’t exact yet. The road is also not set in stone on that curvature. We’ve got to wait and see,” said Mayor Bill Foulds. “The [topography] right there is pretty difficult and the district was concerned … and wanted to make sure we would be able to move the road if we needed to, so that road may deviate a little bit, just like the easement.”
Council member Taline Manassian asked if there would still be an ILA if an agreement is not made on the location of the road, questioning the exhibit, or form of easement, that Carpenter mentioned.
Deputy city attorney Laura Mueller said that her recommendation would be to leave out the form of the easement in the ILA, adding that council can direct staff to finalize it in consultation with the city attorney and administrator.
Another option would be if the district does not follow the terms by providing the easement within six months, then the other ILA would either terminate automatically or by council action, Mueller and Carpenter explained.
The second ILA is related to the development and regulations. What led to this was council's approval of a tree removal waiver Jan. 20, contingent on the adoption of an ILA between the district and city by May 1. Then, at its next meeting, council approved a delay in the payment of site development permit fees until May 20.
According to Carpenter, the five-year agreement does the following: establishes development standards for school facilities; establishes review timelines and process; addresses trees, lighting and signage; defines fees and cost responsibilities; and applies to all projects in the city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction.
A component of the ILA is base fees — everything written into the city’s fee schedule that is tied with acreage, square footage or some metric — are waived. However, the district would need to pay third-party review costs plus 20%, Carpenter explained.
The planning director continued that, consistent with a lot of other jurisdictions, heritage trees are defined as from 18 inches in diameter to 24 inches. Mitigation for these would be reduced from a 3:1 ratio to a 1:1, with a fee in lieu decreasing from $450 per inch to $150 per inch.
“If their fee in lieu exceeds up to $10,000 by the calculation, there would be a cap on that. We ran some assumptions and it would really have to be a pretty tough situation, a heavily treed site, for that to be the case,” Carpenter said. “The district made it clear that they really don't want to have to pay $10,000 an acre. That’s a worse case scenario.”
Negotiations also found alternative mitigation options — something that is not currently written in the city’s code — which include rainwater and condensate reuse, as well as drought-adapted landscaping.
Following executive session on both items, council approved both ILAs in two separate 3-2 votes, with Manassian and council member Travis Crow dissenting and Foulds acting as the tie breaker, as council member Sherrie Parks was absent from the meeting.
After council’s discussion, the DSISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved both ILAs with the city of Dripping Springs at its Monday, April 27, meeting.
“This body has strived, as the city's and Hays County’s largest builder and landowner projects, to have a, basically, for a lack of a better term, development agreement with the municipality that has a large ETJ that most of our schools reside within,” said trustee Rob McClelland, who motioned for the approval of both of the agreements.
“It's huge for our district. It's huge for our taxpayers. It's huge for our city council. It's amazing for us — two government entities — to be working so closely together and making sure that our community is in the forefront of the conversation,” shared trustee Tricia Quintero. “It's not about us or them and I appreciate all the city council members who agree with the agreement and I hope that the ones that didn't necessarily agree with the agreements can come alongside us and move forward together in the future.”
The public can access recordings of the city council meetings at drippingsprings-tx.municodemeetings.com, as well as the school board meetings at www.dsisdtx.us/page/board-meeting-livestream.
