Arrowhead Ranch Agreement includes waste water treatment plant

The developer of Arrowhead Ranch, Starwood Land Advisors, LLC and the City of Dripping Springs completed a proposed Amended and Restated Development Agreement, which was approved on Oct. 23 at the Dripping Springs Planning & Zoning meeting, for recommendation to the City Council. “All the work to get it right is much appreciated,” said Mim James, P & Z chairman. The agreement includes a waste water treatment plant to be dedicated to the City.

Arrowhead Ranch is a 374-acre homesite community located on the western edge of the City of Dripping Springs. It has a conservationist respect for rural character and open spaces, and maintains 37 acres around the original ranch house property. The development was approved in 2007, and homebuilding began in 2016. When development ownership changed in 2018 to Starwood, they proposed a new amended agreement at the DS P&Z City Hall meeting on July 24. Along with minor revisions in trails, parks, open space, and an increase of allowable residential units from 387 to 403, Starwood also offered to build a $5 million Waste Water Treatment Plant (offset by collecting connection fees from builders) on the Arrowhead property, which would also be available for use by Dripping Springs ISD. 

Dripping Springs Middle School is located east of the Arrowhead boundary. “Walnut Springs Elementary School will be relocating next to the middle school from its current location on Sportsplex Dr., with a 2021 opening planned,” said DSISD Executive Director of Communications Dale Whitaker.

DSISD Superintendent Dr. Bruce Gearing said, “The district is exploring options on how we will manage wastewater at the Dripping Springs Middle School site in the future, which includes conversation with the city and the Arrowhead subdivision as they work to develop plans.”

The agreement proposal is to accommodate the two schools with use of the WWTP. “City approval is high priority if the WWTP is to meet the DSISD agenda for the new school, because ground needs to break this year,” said Adib Khoury of Starwood at the July 24 P&Z meeting.        

Arrowhead has a stand-alone land application WW permit which allows enough volume necessary to treat both schools, as well as the Arrowhead community. Its capacity is 465 LUEs (Living Unit Equivalents, a measure of waste water produced by a single-family residence). The proposal also plans a dedicated easement from the schools to the plant.  

This is a temporary WWTP according to Deputy City Administrator Ginger Fraught. “The City wants to connect Arrowhead to the City’s South Regional Wastewater System, so this is a temporary plant. There is a preference by both the City and TCEQ to regionalize WW treatment rather than having multiple plants, however, expansion of the city’s collection system is necessary in order to reach the Arrowhead development. The City must get their discharge permit from TCEQ before the City’s South Regional System can take any flows from the development,” Fraught said. 

The next phase, after the city gets the discharge permit, will be to expand the city’s collection system infrastructure with a “west interceptor project,” leading to the eventual connection from its SRWS to Arrowhead. The City estimates that this will take approximately two years.