Dripping Springs residents protest Terry Black's Barbecue over proposed wedding venues
AUSTIN, Texas - Brisket, sausage links, sweet tea...and picketing.
And no this protest of Terry Black's Barbecue has nothing to do with rogue smoke.
"Part of any wedding includes the words 'I do' and we'd love to hear a committed 'I do' to common sense requests," said Jeanine Christensen with Friendship Alliance.
In recent years Dripping Springs has become known as the "Wedding Capital of Texas." Concerned neighbors in the Dripping Springs area including members of "Friendship Alliance" have some serious concerns with a wedding venue the Black family is wanting to build on Crystal Hill Drive.
"The Friendship Alliance is out here today claiming they want to be friendly neighbors but we don't think this is too friendly," said Mark Black.
Black says the idea is actually to build two high-end wedding venues on the property.
"We got 64 acres out there and with impervious coverage rules we can only develop 6.4 acres. So we're developing right around 6 acres of land out there," Black said.
Christensen says they're not against development.
"Our big push right now is to try to get safe roads and safe clean water. Those are common sense things," Christensen said.
"There's a lot of valid concerns from the neighbors and we've had multiple meetings and it's ironic because we had a meeting last week that went very well and we said we'd come back to them with some concessions and go from there and they start throwing this at us," Black said referring to the protest.
Some neighbors who brought signs and marched in front of the restaurant are concerned about fireworks, noise, traffic.
Mike Dunmire and his wife are concerned about water quality and fire safety.
"You can see that we're surrounded by junipers and dried grasses. Should we have fireworks or sky lanterns or just someone flipping a cigarette, out smoking and flipping a cigarette could set us a blaze," Dunmire said.
Dunmire says that road is the only way out.
"Should there be a fire at the wedding venue, they could be trapped. If it crosses the road here, it traps the Radiance community. If it crosses the road there it traps our home and all of the Goldenwood Community and if it's a little farther up the road it traps all of us," Dunmire said.
The Dripping Springs City Council is set to take up Black's proposal at Tuesday night's meeting.