DRIPPING SPRINGS BABBLE: RECAP OF THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TOWN HALL MEETING

RECAP OF THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TOWN HALL MEETING

Last night's first town hall meeting on the City's new Comprehensive Plan had a pretty decent turnout and the question posed to the crowd asking if they would promise to speak their mind turned out to be laughable. You can't shut Dripping up! Everyone had a lot to say.

As a reminder, the City conducted a survey in August. You could take the survey online and the City mailed out 3,000 copies (which included the ETJ). 400 people responded. The long and short of the results is that survey respondents want to protect Dripping's small town charm and environment and revive Mercer Street . The point person explaining the survey results described many of them as "surprising" and unlike other small towns. In particular, there was surprise at the younger (basically, under 60) and newer resident demographic of the respondents. Typically, he indicated, younger and newer residents are not as involved or interested in their community. Bravo Dripping!

The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee was briefly introduced (6 of the 11 members were in attendance) but one attendee kept pushing to understand how they got on the Committee and what their credentials were to be on it. Initially, his pressure seemed a bit off-putting but thankfully he pushed it because we learned that it is a pretty darn impressive group of people representing the interest of the community. Some were appointed by council members and some submitted letters of interest when the City put out the call. Several of the committee members made it crystal clear they did not want Dripping to turn into another (insert far north Austin suburb name here). A definite surprise to some was that one committee member does not live in Dripping (she grew up here and her parents live here). She was the only one last night to identify herself as "pro-development". Hopefully, the remaining committee members not in attendance last night will be at the next meeting, on November 18 at 6:30PM along with even more Dripping residents. If you've got something to say about Dripping, this is the forum to do so.