Ashley Kontnier
DRIPPING SPRINGS — The North Forty subdivision in Dripping Springs may get roadway and drainage improvements, following Dripping Springs City Council’s approval for staff to apply for a grant to fund the work at its Oct. 20 meeting.
According to the presentation, the city’s 2026 Roadway Evaluation Program identified streets in the neighborhood, including Craig Street, Brookside Street, Summit Drive, Timberline Road and Glosson Road, that need “significant” repairs. However, these streets were not included in the city’s 2027-2031 Five-Year Roadway Improvement Plan.
“The difference in these roads and many on our Roadway Maintenance Program are that these roads need full rebuild of the section and there’s a significant amount of drainage [work] that needs to be done,” said city engineer Chad Gilpin.
For this reason, rather than using roadway maintenance funds, staff decided to pursue grants for the work, to more comprehensively address the project.
The proposed plan for North Forty is divided into phases , starting with Phase 1 - Craig Street. The reason for this, Gilpin explained, is that Craig Street is the street to which all of the other streets drain.
To that end, the city engineer identified and requested approval to apply for the Texas Department of Agriculture’s 2027-2028 Texas Community Development Block Grant Program (TxCDBG) Community Development Fund in the amount of $750,000, with a $75,000 city match.
It is unlikely that the grant will be enough to complete the full scope of Phase 1, according to agenda documents, but staff intends to return to council with an amendment to the Five-Year Roadway Improvement Plan, when more detailed cost estimates are complete, to fund the remainder of the phase.
While there are multiple steps to the grant process, the first is a community application, which is due Nov. 19.
“After that application, they’ll review. In December, they’ll let us know if the community has passed and, if so, they’ll invite us to go to what they call the project application,” Gilpin said.
The project application is more complex, he continued, so staff will issue a request for proposals for a grant writer, which is anticipated to come back to council in late November or December.
“We've had a lot of discussions with the Department of Agriculture and with potential grant writers and, based on the input that we've received, we have a high potential of getting an award,” Gilpin said.
As for the next three phases — Phase 2-Brookside Street, Phase 3-Summit Drive and Phase 4-Timberline Road — staff would like to use the grant writer to pursue other grant opportunities, as Gilpin said it’s unlikely to receive back-to-back TxCDBG awards during the next three cycles. However, the city would have another opportunity during the 2030-2031 cycle, which could be used to complete the final improvements on Glosson Road.
The total project cost is estimated at $3.7 million, but this only includes planning for sidewalks, not construction, which would cost approximately $600,000.
Following the community application in November and selection of a grant writer in December, the project application would be submitted by June 1, 2027, with approvals posted in the fall.
If awarded, project design and engineering would take place from February to August 2028 and construction would begin in fall of that year.
Council voted 5-0 to authorize submission of the city’s application.
Dripping Springs City Council will meet next at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3.
