ETOWAH – After a development company withdrew its original plan for a 343-unit RV park for the South and West courses of the Etowah Valley Golf & Resort following an outcry from Etowah citizens, it submitted a new plan for a 242-lot subdivision. – but this, too, is opposed by community members who want to keep the golf course as it is.
A group called the Etowah Valley Preservation Society is raising funds to fight against the development company, Tribute Investment & Development, based in Wilmington. Tribune requested a special-use permit for the construction of the subdivision on 83.5 hectares. The lots vary in size with a minimum of 4,800 square feet and an average density of 2.69 units per acre, according to Henderson County Business & Community Development Director Chris Todd.
The Henderson County Technical Review Committee met on Aug. 15 to review the site plan for “completeness with each county and state laws,” Todd said.
Etowah Valley Golf & Resort:The next meeting is scheduled at the proposed RV park at Etowah Valley Golf & Resort
“The Planning Board will meet on August 24 to review the master plan and give the final decision to approve or deny the application,” he said.
The meeting is scheduled for 4 pm in the Thomas Auditorium at Blue Ridge Community College. Members of the Etowah Valley Preservation Society plan to be there to oppose the subdivision, which they say is no better than an RV park because the plan still includes a sewage treatment plant and adds more than 2,000 additional vehicles. on their roads every day.
The group has a website (PreserveEtowahValley.com) and a weekly newsletter that goes to more than 3,000 homes in the Etowah community. The newsletter was posted to a public Facebook group called “Preserve Etowah Valley,” which has more than 800 members. The original petition opposing the project has 2,680 signatures so far.
Etowah golf course:Application for RV Park withdrawn for new project
Another group opposed to the subdivision is the Etowah Reach Property Owners Association, led by David Garnett. He told the Times-News earlier this month that he wrote to the Planning Board to provide several reasons not to build a subdivision on the golf course.
“Golf courses are unnatural, and the only way to keep them in their unnatural state is with heavy chemical spraying,” he said in the letter. “The soil and the water below the channel will both be contaminated after heavy chemical spraying over the course of five decades.”
The former owners of Etowah Valley Golf & Resort are members of the Todd family, including former Hendersonville Mayor Frank Todd Sr., who founded the golf club in 1967. The golf resort includes three nine-hole courses (a total of (27 holes), a 75-unit lodge for travelers, a dining room, a clubhouse, a croquet field, a swimming pool and also a tennis court.”
Garnett said complicating matters, the South Course was built over the remains of a commercial brickyard known as Etowah Brick, which may have left behind asbestos and coal ash, commonly used to make brick during its operation. and know more. recently toxic. He said in his letter that the excavation and grading of the land to build a subdivision may bring those toxic chemicals to the surface and release their gases into the air.
“Because of the chemical history of the golf course, it’s safer at this point to leave the land undisturbed,” he said.
Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at DHensley@gannett.com. Please help support this type of local newspaper with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.