The 75-year-old course in Collinsville, Va. is the only remaining public course in Henry County. It was transferred to new operators through a one-year lease at the beginning of 2020, but the owners of the 120-acre property said payments have been missed and asked the county zoning board for a special-use permit to build the solar facility that could power 4,000 homes. The new operators say their payments have been refused just as they’re “beginning to make it,” and retaining the course also has the support of residents of a nearby retirement community.
Beaver Hills Golf Course in Collinsville, Va. will not be transformed into a solar farm, the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin reported.
On December 22nd, members of the Henry County Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously denied a special-use permit requested by the owners and prospective developers who were seeking to convert the 75-year-old, Ferdinand Garbin-designed 18-hole golf course—the only public course in the county—into a 120-acre solar facility that would have produced enough power to supply 4,000 homes, the Bulletin reported.
“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t, at the very least, give you my professional opinion—and I can’t say covering that property with solar panels for the next 40 years would be the highest and best use of that property,” said Lee Clark, the county’s director of planning, zoning and inspection.
The plan as presented by developers is similar to plans approved for the former Bassett (Va.) Country Club and that the city of Martinsville is negotiating with the former Lynwood Golf and Country Club, the Bulletin reported.
The Beaver Hills course was transferred at the beginning of 2020 (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/courses-in-vermont-virginia-purchased/) to new operators, William McLawhorn and Michael Hendricks, who at the time said they had grown up playing there and didn’t want to see it suffer the same fate as the other courses in the county that had closed in recent years.
“We want to keep it going for the community,” said Hendricks at the time. “We have a lot of senior citizens that play and to give them something to do. To let them come out because the private courses are more expensive. Courses might not be accessible to them.”
But at the Henry County Board of Zoning Appeals meeting where the conversion to the solar farm was considered, the Bulletin reported, Andrew Palmer, a commercial leasing manager for The Lester Group, which owns the land where Beaver Hills GC is located, contended that McLawhorn now felt he was unable to make the course profitable, as “golf play has continued to decline,” and supported the approval of the special-use permit.
McLawhorn and Hendricks signed a one-year lease with The Lester Group that is set to expire at the end of the year, the Bulletin reported. Palmer has accused McLawhorn of defaulting on payment of rent for the past four months and said he intends to pursue the matter in court in January.
McLawhorn told the Bulletin that he had not defaulted in paying rent, but that his rent payments were being refused by the owners.
“I took a one-year lease because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to make it work,” McLawhorn added. “Now that we’re beginning to make it, they are the ones that want out of the deal.”
McLawhorn said he would be agreeable to sitting down with Palmer and working out a long-term lease agreement that would provide him with an opportunity to realize a return on his investment, the Bulletin reported.
Palmer, who was present at the hearing, left upon its conclusion and was not immediately available for comment, the Bulletin reported.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” McLawhorn said after the hearing had ended. “I don’t know if they are going to work with me.”
Lee Clark, the county official, explained that his opposition to the solar project had nothing to do with the arrangement between McLawhorn, Hendricks and The Lester Group, the Bulletin reported.
“The county does have the right and the responsibility to look at this from a land-use perspective,” Clark said, “and in my opinion, this 120 acres of property is already zoned commercial [and has] 100 feet of frontage along [what is] easily the premier road in this part of the county.”
The Beaver Hills property is “surrounded by sewer, water, power and primed for development,” Clark added.
“In a perfect world, I would be a developer and say this is the perfect property for mixed-use development,” he said. “Townhouses, single-use dwellings, offices—the synergy is obvious when you look at these developments in other areas—it’s perfectly suited for that.”
The county’s zoning ordinance includes a section that prohibits “[impeding] the development of surrounding property,” Clark said. “That would be the reason if I were making a legal argument—that [the solar-farm proposal] does not meet the criteria for a special-use permit.”
Joe Bryant, the Collinsville District representative on the county Board of Supervisors, wrote that he was opposed because the solar-farm project “will not provide revenue and [the property] can be used for more profitable land usage,” the Bulletin reported.
The zoning board also heard from officials of the Kings Grant Retirement community, which abuts the Beaver Hills property, who said many of their residents enjoyed golfing at the course because they could walk to it and didn’t have to drive.
A letter from one county resident was read that said “shutting the course down will leave those of us with small to average incomes with no place to golf.”
Clark, the county official, also said that multiple pages of signatures under the title “Save Beaver Hills Golf” had been submitted to the zoning board, the Bulletin reported.
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