Reimagine Dripping Springs: What the 2040 Comprehensive Plan Means for You — And How to Have Your Say
There's a document sitting on the city's website right now that will quietly shape almost everything about life in Dripping Springs for the next two decades — where houses get built, how traffic moves, whether there's enough water, what Mercer Street looks like in 2040.
It's called the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, or "Reimagine Dripping Springs." The city released an updated draft in June and is actively asking residents and business owners for feedback. Most people won't read a plan that runs hundreds of pages with appendices. So here's the plain-English version.
What a Comprehensive Plan Actually Is
Think of it as the city's roadmap rather than its rulebook. The plan serves as a long-range guide for growth, development and infrastructure decisions over the next 20 years, while aiming to preserve the character residents value most.
One important clarification, because this trips people up: the plan itself doesn't rezone anything or approve any specific development. What it does is set the framework that future zoning decisions, infrastructure investments, and development approvals get judged against. So it's less "this land becomes apartments" and more "this is the kind of place we want that area to be" — which then shapes the individual decisions that follow.
This draft updates the city's previous comprehensive plan and caps a process that began back in 2022, built on public meetings, stakeholder interviews, surveys, and input from a citizen advisory committee.
Why This One Matters More Than the Last One
Because the growth numbers are genuinely staggering.
Hays County's population grew by roughly 37% between 2016 and 2023, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. And projections from the Texas Demographic Center anticipate it climbing another 85% by 2060.
That's the pressure behind every page of this plan. Dripping Springs isn't deciding whether to grow — that's already happening. It's deciding how.
The Five Focus Areas
The draft organizes everything around five priorities:
Infrastructure and Facilities
Community Character
Connectivity and Corridor Enhancement
Housing
Economic Development and Funding
Within those, the major themes are additional water and wastewater infrastructure, transportation improvements, expanded housing options, and continued protection of open spaces, natural resources and Hill Country character.
The Water Question
The most consequential issue behind the plan is also the least glamorous: wastewater capacity — the practical ceiling on how much new development a city can actually support.
There's genuinely good news here. After years of litigation, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in the city's favor in April 2025, upholding the wastewater discharge permit TCEQ issued in 2019 and clearing the way for the city to expand its South Regional Wastewater System — roughly tripling treatment capacity from about 300,000 to 822,500 gallons per day. City officials say the plan is to reuse treated water for irrigating parks and green spaces rather than discharging it into local waterways.
But capacity isn't solved overnight. Mayor Bill Foulds has been candid that the years of delay carried real costs — developers built temporary treatment plants that pushed housing costs up — and the city has had to seek an additional $51 million in funding on top of a $43 million loan secured in 2019 to complete the expansion. "We're not out of the woods yet," as Foulds put it.
Meanwhile, water pressure is visible in the present tense: the city moved into Stage 2 mandatory watering restrictions for City of Dripping Springs water customers this spring. Infrastructure remains the plan's first-listed focus area for a reason.
The Future Land Use Map — and "Place Types"
The draft includes an updated Future Land Use Map covering the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction (the unincorporated area the city has some authority over).
Here's the interesting shift: instead of focusing purely on density — how many units per acre — the plan uses a series of "place types" meant to reflect the desired character of different parts of the community. It's a subtle but meaningful change in approach: less about counting rooftops, more about what a place should feel like to walk through.
If you own property or run a business anywhere in town, the Future Land Use Map is the single page of this plan worth finding yourself on.
What Residents Said They Wanted
Feedback gathered during the planning process consistently emphasized four things: preserving natural resources, maintaining the small-town atmosphere, protecting dark skies, and balancing growth with quality of life.
The plan's vision statement reflects that — describing a future where Dripping Springs keeps growing while holding onto its identity as the "Gateway to the Hill Country."
Whether the final plan lives up to that is exactly what the comment period is for.
How to Read the Plan and Submit Feedback
The city has made this genuinely accessible — you don't need to read all 300 pages. The online tool lets you review the document, explore interactive maps, and submit comments directly on specific ideas and proposed land-use concepts.
City officials are specifically encouraging residents, business owners, and property owners to weigh in, noting that the plan will guide decisions affecting the community for decades and that they want to hear from everyone who cares about the future of Dripping Springs.
🔗 Review the draft plan and take the survey 🔗 reimaginedrippingsprings.com 🔗 City Planning & Development Department
Why You Should Actually Bother
Public comment periods have a predictable pattern: the people who show up are the ones with the most at stake financially, while everyone else assumes someone will speak for them. A previous public meeting on an earlier draft of this plan drew about 40 residents in a city of this size.
That's not a criticism of anyone — life is busy. But it does mean the handful of people who take twenty minutes to click through the survey have a genuinely outsized voice in what Dripping Springs looks like in 2040.
If you have opinions about traffic on 290, whether your kids will be able to afford to live here, what happens to the night sky, or whether there's enough water for what's being built — this is the room where that gets decided.
We'll continue following the Comprehensive Plan through adoption. Have thoughts on the plan, or a local story we should cover? Reply and let us know.
Sources: Dripping Springs Century News | Community Impact | City of Dripping Springs | Texas Supreme Court wastewater ruling — City press release | Community Impact — court decision coverage
