DRIPPING UPDATE: LEAL VINEYARDS
In past posts we have been hopeful and enthusiastic about Leal Vineyards in Dripping Springs. However, we have learned troubling news about what is really intended for the vineyard. We will be following this closely. News and updates coming soon.
Posted by DSBabble.com at Wednesday, February 04, 2009 8:27 AM 
Categories: leal vineyards, dripping springs
Categories: leal vineyards, dripping springs
What are you hearing? I talked to one of the guys out there about a month ago, he said they would have an ampitheater there with live music...big stuff like Kid Rock. I'm not sure I like Kid Rock, especially in that location.
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Any hints? Any place I can find details? I live less than a mile away from the site. If something troubling is going on, I'd love to know what it is.
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Okay guys, lots of things are being said, and depending on who you talk to will depend on what you hear, and whether or not it is liked or not.
Working for the City, I get to hear both sides of the coin. What I know is...
1. They are planning to build an amphitheater; not so sure about the 5000 seat business that keeps getting batted around. The construction manager, Chuck Ortwein, has informed me just yesterday that the number perhaps is more like 1200 to 1500, but that is for the large events that might happen periodically.
2. The work being done so far is agriculturally related since those items related to the vineyard - the vineyard, the road around the vineyard, the pond, and the gate are all essentially items not covered by the site development ordinance. They are planning a tasting room, some small cabins, a stage (to go with the amphitheater), and some other items that go with vineyards.
3. From talking with another of the neighbors, she has said that Frank Leal told her that his primary business is weddings (not the same as what I have been told, but what one person is told and another is told can differ depending on the conversation direction).
4. Primary concerns as I understand them - noise, excessive traffic on Creek Road, pollution from vineyard, light pollution.
5. Issues the City can regulate - site development, water quality, signage. This property is out of the City limits, and therefore not subject to zoning (i.e., land use as to what the land can be used for - vineyard, junk yard, pig farm...).
6. The County is charged with regulating stormwater runoff, road maintenance, and on-site sewage (septics) as it relates to development; the Sheriff's Department of course is charged with law enforcement, but excessive traffic on public roads, noise that is less than the decibel level regulated by the County's noise ordinance, and light pollution are not regulated by the County. The County's strongest regulatory tool in regards to large events is the "mass gathering permit" that regulates the sanitary conditions related to port-a-potties; possibly water, and possibly access into and out of the property. (The last two I am pulling from thin air as I am thinking that it might be something the County could lump under the "mass gathering permit".)
The guys at Leal Vineyard from my perspective so far from dealing with them has been that they are upfront about what they are doing. They bought the land legally; there are no land use controls that affect their use of the land as they propose; and there are worse types of development that this particular tract has been proposed for (100 homes, a mobile home park); the creation of a vineyard and an "event facility" (one of the neighbor's words for it) is a better use of the property than some of the other uses that I have seen suggested for it.
I can assure you that the City is in contact with the developer; and the County is also watching the situation as well.
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