A new, major subdivision is coming to The Greenbrier resort.
The burgeoning plan was presented to the Greenbrier Planning Commission on Wednesday, Mar. 9. Officials from The Greenbrier hotel and The Greenbrier Golf and Tennis Club Corporation were on hand to seek an exemption from the Greenbrier County Subdivision Ordinance, stating the proposed subdivision consists of buildings that already exist.
“You’re just taking those existing buildings … and you’re going to rehab them,” said planning commission member Dan Edwards. “[Then] you’re going to be selling them to people as vacation homes, or homes on the grounds, or whatever. You’re not constructing anything new? Anything other than changing those existing buildings?”
Adam Long, chief financial officer for The Greenbrier, agreed with Edwards’ description of the property transfers.
The Greenbrier and the Golf and Tennis Club corporation plan to sell existing rental properties to companies or individuals, who will then rent the properties to The Greenbrier to host guests. Long told the commission that the only anticipated change was a “significant transfer of taxes” from The Greenbrier to the new property owners, creating “a broadening of the tax base.”
“We anticipate, from the research we’ve done, that in excess of half -maybe as many as 70 to 80 percent of (the new property owners) – are going to enter into our rental program agreement. … We’re going to put hotel guests in there.” said Long.
Adam Long (standing) presented to the planning commission. |
Long noted that the program would be “for all intents and purposes” similar to Greenbrier Sporting Club members, except called Legacy Club members.
“They are directly behind the Spring Row properties,” Long explained. “We’ve run them through our rental program for years and years. … We don’t want any of them changing the aesthetics or anything. We can’t allow that. … The exterior will be extremely micromanaged. … We are obligated to maintain it through the property management agreements.”
Long also noted the buildings couldn’t just be sold to any party without the hotel first considering it.
“We will have a first right of refusal,” Long said. “They can sell them direct to somebody, but it has to go through us. We could, hypothetically, as we sell them, buy them all back, but we have control over who they sell them to.”
The Greenbrier representatives requested the new collection of homes available for purchase not be considered under the county’s subdivision ordinance, saying “we don’t believe any of the [major subdivision] provisions apply” to the project. County attorney Britt Ludwig, helping to inform what the Planning Commission could do, asked the representatives to clarify that position.
“Are you then saying that, yes, it would be a major subdivision, [but] we’re going to waive the requirements of the subdivision ordinance?” Ludwig asked.
Long replied that he didn’t think the ordinance applied to this particular project, but if the commission insisted on adhering to the ordinance, Long asked that the requirements be waved.
“I don’t believe [the original code writers were] even contemplating something like this,” Long responded. “[The code was] set up [for] sprawl, future use, and development, it’s everywhere in it. … However, if you do determine it applies, as I’ve stated many times, there’s language within the very code to hang your hat on and say … ‘here is the language that we can exercise our authority and discretion to say, everything is complied with, there’s no need to go through all of this. We can exercise our right to grant waivers of conditions, affix our stamp, and let it go on record.’”
The issue, according to Long, is time.
“First of all, the delay in time is extremely sensitive, because we made all these intentions known back in the fall,” Long said. “We’ve done a tremendous amount of work over the last four or five months. We’re on a strict timeline, for reasons I can’t go into in this forum. We’re already really pressing by doing what we’re doing here. … Second of all, I have no problem with public hearings, we’re here today, but [waiting] on another public hearing that’s going to be at least a bare minimum of three weeks from today, is the biggest problem. [Also] it provides forums for people to complain about things that aren’t pertinent. … If I can leave here and continue to alter plans for four or five days, that’s one thing, but another month? I don’t even know if it’s feasible.”
After two executive sessions to consult with Ludwig, the planning commission voted to treat the property as a “major subdivision”, noting there was already an application in place, waive the public hearing, and review the major subdivision documents.
“The only thing we’re going to do is … review the plats, your application, and everything, … which will just take a day or so, but we can’t record another meeting until Tuesday,” said Greenbrier County Commission President Lowell Rose.
A meeting was scheduled for next Tuesday in order to consider the next step.
The Greenbrier County Planning Commission |
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