The Republic Planning and Zoning Commission helped forward plans for a $350 million equestrian center last night voting unanimously to recommend a zoning change to Republic City Council.
Nearly 1,000 acres southwest of James River Freeway and Interstate 44 would become part of a planned development district and shed its current agricultural zoning designation should council members approve the transition. On March 26, City Council will host a public hearing and first reading on the zoning change before it votes on the measure April 9, according to Republic Planning and Development Director Gail Noggle.
Last night’s vote came roughly seven weeks after Republic City Council voted unanimously to approve annexation of the land under contract with private developers, known collectively as Eclipse Event Center LLC. Plans for the property include a hotel with more than 300 rooms, a 15,000-seat arena, 60 cottages, manmade lakes with 64 lakefront cabins, 30 condos, an RV park, a spa, a fitness center and an 11-mile cross-country course.
With council approval of the preliminary planned development, Noggle said the planning department could begin the formal review process and start to receive detailed drawings from the center’s developers.
“Your preliminary development plan shows the basic concept, character and nature of the entire proposed planned development. It does not, to this point, get into the detailed development plans or engineering drawings. That comes in the final phase. But this sets the foundation for final approval of turning that property from an agricultural designation to a (planned development district),” Noggle said.
Noggle said a formal review process could be extensive because there are several components to the project. She said reviewing plans on a specific component might only take 10 days, but she’d expect there would be some back and forth between city officials and developers to meet city building codes on each component.
Carl Scott, a representative of the developers, said in January the equestrian center has financial support from three groups of investors representing more than 50 individuals from as far away as Arizona and Detroit backing the project.
Noggle reached out to Scott and Coldwell Banker real estate agent Tim Chancellor – another representative of the development group – last spring to suggest they bring the equestrian center to Republic after the group scrapped plans to develop on 477 acres south of Rogersville in Christian County due to infrastructure challenges.[[In-content Ad]]
