Dripping Springs (Austin, Highlands, Earth: new home, landscaping, job transfer)

[Relocating in TX]

I'm relocating to Dripping Springs, TX from Chicago (job transfer). I would like advise on the schools. I've done some prelimary research on the community and understand that it's up and coming. Has it lost its small community charm?

[FromCalitoSteinerRanch]

Originally Posted by Relocating in TX

I'm relocating to Dripping Springs, TX from Chicago (job transfer). I would like advise on the schools. I've done some prelimary research on the community and understand that it's up and coming. Has it lost its small community charm?

Part of our decision not to move to Dripping Springs (DS) was that it HASN'T lost its small town charm. My wife/"stay at home mom" asked me what she would do with the girls all day, and unfortunately it meant driving to Oak Hill or beyond to find things to do.

It was just too small, but there are a few folks on the board that live there, and they will have good ideas on how far things are away, and with a new Home Depot going in, and other things, it may be just a few years before folks wanting some closer convienence have what they want.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by Relocating in TX

I'm relocating to Dripping Springs, TX from Chicago (job transfer). I would like advise on the schools. I've done some prelimary research on the community and understand that it's up and coming. Has it lost its small community charm?

Schools in DS are excellent...but crowded at all levels because so many want to send their kids there.

I don't live there, but my sister taught there (5th grade) for about 15 years, and retired last year.

The entire area is growing like crazy, but as the other poster stated, DS is still a small town with not a lot to do in the immediate vicinity. But...everything you could want is within (IMHO) reasonable driving distance.

[Austin-Sylvia]

I've heard a lot of good things about the Dripping Springs Schools on all levels. When we were considering schools for our daughter who is going into high school, we visited Dripping Springs High School. All the kids seem happy and the teachers seem dedicated and appear to be enjoying themselves. Ultimately, we decided against sending our daughter there mainly because it seems a little too rural. I was especially taken aback by the huge weight and work out training room with the mounted deer heads and other hunting trophies all around the room. I am an animal lover, so this did not sit well with me...but this is Texas and considered normal around here.

[Phisch]

We looked in Belterra, which is within Dripping Springs ISD. It is not so far from where we bought (as the crow flies) but it felt further out when we drove out there.

We opted to buy in Circle C because we liked the home (and it was already built!) and the proximity to downtown. Even with our proximity to things, we will have to do some driving for some fun stuff to do. That's just the way it is around here, though.

[audrey2]

I visited some model homes in Belterra on my last trip to Austin (We're moving to Austin soon) and one of the builder reps told me to make the five minute drive out to the "downtown" area of Dripping Springs, that it was charming, and that it would be well worth my effort. I did so and disagreed, but maybe my expectations were too high. I think the area will build up really quickly, and that could be a good thing or a bad thing. I expressed concern to the guy about the projected build-up affecting the traffic and thus the commute to the city and more traffic lights, etc., and he actually said that that wouldn't happen! He offered a reason, and I forget what it was. Something about how every time an area expands, they always keep up with it by widening the roads. We are still considering Belterra, however, along with many other areas. Too many to choose among! I agree that the rural aspect of DS is a minus--for me, anyway.

[Austin-Sylvia]

The traffic situation in Dripping Springs will only get worse in the next few years until they figure out what they are going to do with Hwy 290 west going through Oak Hill. Right now all the plans for expansion are on hold until the city planning and highway department approves a plan for either an overpass (which the Oak Hill Residents are fighting) or a parkway going through.

I'll have to agree, downtown Dripping Springs (if you can find it with all the highways, traffic, new construction and gaudy billboards) is not quaint at all. We just got back from northern Colorado around the Boulder area and realized we have been severely negligent in planning the whole area along Hwy 290. Anyone who thinks this area is quaint needs to take a drive up near Aspen and Boulder where people have respected the Earth and the beauty of the landscaping. The hillcountry has beautiful areas and Dripping Springs used to be one of these, but with all the building, strip centers and unresticted billboards we cannot see it anymore.

[Driftwood1]

Indeed.
That was one of the more accurate descriptions of DS I have seen, and the same goes for many of the little towns surrounding Austin.. I dont know how poeple let it happen so fast. You CAN have growth that retains the character of the towns, but often round here, the almighty buck drives developers, who really dont care, they wont be living there..


"" I'll have to agree, downtown Dripping Springs (if you can find it with all the highways, traffic, new construction and gaudy billboards) is not quaint at all. We just got back from northern Colorado around the Boulder area and realized we have been severely negligent in planning the whole area along Hwy 290. Anyone who thinks this area is quaint needs to take a drive up near Aspen and Boulder where people have respected the Earth and the beauty of the landscaping. The hillcountry has beautiful areas and Dripping Springs used to be one of these, but with all the building, strip centers and unresticted billboards we cannot see it anymore.
""

[love roses]

I 100% agree with you. When we lived in Denver, we loved that we didn't see mile after mile of billboard. The signage was adequate enough to see what you were looking for. There were developers who were always arguing about it, but they were always shot down. Denver does have billboards, but not tons. I love how you can tell where one town ends and another begins because the strip centers they have are unique to each town and the architecture shows it. Some parts of Boulder do have generic strip centers, but again, only a few. Also, they don't feel like every inch of highway has to be developed by a strip center. From Boulder to Aspen is mostly countryside, and if you need gas or something, you have to exit the highway and go into whatever town to get it. It would be fantastic if Austin took a lesson from them. Highlands Ranch, however, is plain and simple suburban sprawl. Nothing so beautiful about it. And like I said above with developing every inch of land along a highway...Have you noticed how developers are already salivating over what they'll put up along the I30 toll road? I think they have plans for every existing patch of green all along it. A big heaven of concrete parking lot after concrete parking lot.....

[achtungpv]

The only thing that has impeded Dripping's growth is that there wasn't a city sewer system. You couldn't build a septic system to support an HEB, Home Depot, etc. If HD is moving in, I guess they have one now and sprawl here they come.