QuikTrip decision postponed again

The Dripping Springs City Council postponed their decision on whether to keep a 2007 zoning restriction which would prohibit a QuikTrip from being built at the corner of US290 and Sawyer Ranch Road, their Aug. 13 meeting. The postponement was at the request of the applicant QuikTrip.

At the same meeting, Sawyer Springs residents, who have remained firm through several city meetings in their desire to have the City keep the 2007 zoning restriction, repeated their objections to the QuikTrip during the public hearing, and some asked for a decision that night against removal of the restriction.

The QuikTrip Corporation was not informed about the City’s “Conditional Overlay” against convenience stores (with or without gas)  at the time they purchased this 9.73 property zoned as General Retail, and are now faced with a “bone of contention” which prohibits them from breaking ground on a 3-acre corner for their meticulously-planned convenience store.

“This was a difficult project because of all the regulations the City of Dripping Springs has,” said QuikTrip project manager J.D. Dudley during his introductory presentation at the May 28 DS Planning & Zoning meeting.  “We checked all the boxes, and trusting we were zoned correctly, we are ready to break ground. It took us 2-3 months alone just to comply with the DS unique building design standards to build a QuikTrip geared for this community.”

Previously, property owners near the proposed QuikTrip also packed City Hall on May 28 to express their concerns before the DS P&Z Commission. P&Z members voted to recommend that the City Council keep the CO in place (by a vote of 7 to 0) -- but at the City Council’s June 11 meeting, council members asked these same residents to please talk with QuikTrip and see if they could work things out, tabling the decision until their Aug. 13 meeting.

On Aug. 13, a second postponement until September was requested by QuikTrip real estate manager Brandon Forshee, because only three neighboring property owners came to their meeting.  “We left the meeting with the understanding that the neighbors who could not make it would let us know when we could meet again. We reached out and sent emails,” Forshee said.

Sawyer Springs resident Dan Wallace said he was at the meeting, and described the meeting as very cordial, but a waste of time.

He and other residents, at the City Council meeting, continued to bring up the same objections they have been stating to the City since May— among them increased traffic, additional light pollution, and concerns about drainage which they say has been aggravated since the construction of the Sawyer Ranch Medical Tower.

Referring to the recommendation by P&Z against removal of the CO, Richard Bergfeld, who was a land owner at the time the CO was “hammered out,” said, “P&Z has already said no to QuikTrip. Vote no tonight.”  The other residents agreed.

Helen Darling of Rugged Earth Dr. since 2005, had previously expressed at city meetings that “the CO was thoughtfully worked out with the residents at the ETJ annexation. There is no buffer between the gas station and our homes. I beg the city to honor their previous negotiation.”

At the Aug. 13 City Council hearing she said, “This group has a right to profit from its land, but not at the expense of our land.”

The City Council expressed concerns about the types of businesses which could potentially locate on the entire presently zoned GR acreage, some of whom may not want to meet with the neighbors to discuss their perspective, while QuikTrip is willing.

Since there was no apparent progress report, or secondary meeting, as both QuikTrip and property owners thought the other would schedule a second meeting, City Council decided to give both parties another month “on hold,” for the opportunity to discuss their points of contention and reach some common ground.