Biohazard Cleanup Near Highpointe Belterra, TX

Belterra is an unincorporated master-planned community and census-designated place in Hays County, about 18 miles southwest of downtown Austin at the gateway to the Texas Hill Country.

Belterra is so new that it appeared as a census-designated place for the first time in the 2020 census, which counted 6,170 residents.

Development of the roughly 1,600-acre master-planned community, set along U.S. Highway 290 near Nutty Brown Road, began in the early 2000s, and Belterra was named Master Planned Community of the Year in 2015.

The census-designated place covers about 3.4 square miles of rolling Hill Country land.

Belterra was designed around the outdoors, with about 17 miles of hike-and-bike trails, more than 400 acres of open space, and a dozen parks, including the nearly nine-acre Retreat at San Saba.

The Belterra Recreation Center anchors community life with a resort-style swimming complex, while the 93-acre Belterra Village at the community's edge adds shops, restaurants, and a movie theater.

Children in Belterra attend Dripping Springs Independent School District schools - Rooster Springs Elementary, which sits inside the community, Sycamore Springs Middle School, and Dripping Springs High School.

About 14 percent of Belterra's residents - 869 of its 6,170 people in 2020 - are Hispanic or Latino, a far smaller share than in most Texas communities its size.