Following a July 5 meeting of the San Marcos City Council, a controversial film studio project will move forward — with its generous tax incentives — despite fierce backlash from the community.
The project is a $267 million film studio proposed by Hill Country Studios, a subsidiary of Hill Country Group. However, the 820,000-square-foot development would be built right on top of the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, a critical source of drinking water for a number of cities.
Code-named “Project Dark Monday,” the project was first presented to the city council on June 7. Representatives of Hill Country Studios laid out plans for stages, backlots, and production offices, plus 25 acres reserved for vendor and commercial space. In an 8-1 vote, the council approved a five-year property tax rebate worth almost $4 million, the Austin Business Journal reported, with the city of San Marcos estimated to retain $11.5 million in new tax revenue over 10 years.
(Courtesy of Foley Design)
After the story broke, opposition quickly organized on social media. On June 28, a large group of protesters, dubbed “Protect the River,” gathered outside the San Marcos City Council waving signs that read “Agua es vida,” or “Water is life.”
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While the city does not own the land and cannot stop private development, protestors argued the incentives represented the city’s full support of development on the environmentally protected area. During the protest, Council Member Maxfield Baker, the lone vote against the incentives, voiced his frustration to a reporter from MySA.com, saying “we’re literally incentivizing someone to build on the recharge zone.”
In response to the backlash, Hill Country Studios co-founders Zach Price and Cory McLoud went on a PR tour to tout the economic benefits of their project. With Texas’ film industry waning, McLoud said he wanted to turn the area into a film hub, citing a neighboring studio project in Bastrop called 552. Studio representatives said they’re expecting “top tier clientele” such as Universal Pictures, Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney and Columbia.
McLoud has also tried ease concerns about the project’s environmental impact on the recharge zone, citing a plan to avoid construction along a greenbelt in the development to allow for drainage into the aquifer
Tuesday’s council meeting was called mainly to address public concerns about the project’s impact and the incentive approval process, said Council Member Alyssa Garza who co-sponsored the discussion item. Though she voted in favor of the tax rebate, Garza understands the concern about the huge project coming to such an environmentally sensitive area.
“In a perfect world,” she told ABJ,”nothing would be there.”
[ABJ] — Maddy Sperling