Timeline of events: Part 2

See Part 1 below.
Local residents had no prior knowledge of the county's purchase, but now the community knows what's going on, so things have started to happen:

3. I sent an email out to an existing neighborhood list:

For those who may not know, Henderson County has entered into an option to buy the Highland Lake Golf Club. They plan to create a soccer complex with park space and a walking trail. The complex as described in a draft design would include additional parking, 3 adult regulation soccer fields, 6 U12 (junior) regulation soccer fields, with the potential for night play (high-intensity lights) and added entrances to the new parking off of North Highland by the dam. The Henderson County Soccer Association, which holds camps and competitive soccer play, is heavily involved, and hopes to promote more youth soccer and adult soccer.

Click here for the Henderson Times News story, and click here for the Times News editorial in support of the purchase.

I’m interested in keeping up with what is happening with this, and would like as many as possible to have info on the situation, so I plan to email any information I get to this email list. Let me know if you have any other names you would like to add.

What I’ve done so far: I have talked with Judy Boleman, zoning administrator for the Village. She confirmed that all of the Highland Lake Golf property is within the municipal lines for the Village of Flat Rock. It is currently zoned for recreational use, so the soccer complex fits into that zoning. The majority of the land is a designated flood plane, so any development would have to conform to the village flood plane requirements. Any installation of traffic lights or additional entrances onto any roads would have to be approved by the North Carolina Dept of Transportation, not Henderson County. My understanding from Judy is that the state does not require any additional traffic, noise, or environmental studies on the property.

The county has until Dec. 31 to finalize the purchase, which will be seller financed by the owner of the golf club. I have a draft document produced by the county titled “Business Plan for the Proposed Highland Lake Park,” last updated Oct. 11, 2011, prepared by the assistant county manager, the director of county parks & recreation, and a county internal auditor—anyone who wants a copy, let me know and I can email it to you.

Several communities obviously are directly affected, including Staton Woods (right across the creek) and Highland Golf Villas (they look out over the golf course and share the entrance with the club). Those two homeowners associations are meeting this evening to talk about the issue—I plan to be there to hear what their concerns are. Others impacted include the Highland Lake Inn, Highland Lake Village, any property owners around the lake, and anyone worried about increased traffic and noise in the area.

There are several areas of concern:

• Increased traffic
• Increased noise
• Light pollution
• Decreased property values
• Elimination of trees on property
• Location of parking lots
• Speed at which the county is optioning this—have they looked at other sites for soccer, why aren’t they upgrading the soccer fields at Jackson Park (which are in poor condition) instead, etc.

In addition, while the county is promoting this as a win for business and the Village, I can say, from seeing these types of complexes in California, there will be basically two demographics using the fields: 1) parents with their young children (who will most likely stop off at the fast-food places near I-26 and Upward Road after the weekend games) and 2) adult males (who will also not contribute much to the Village since they will be stopping after work and then heading home). I see very little interest in either of these two groups in visiting the Flat Rock Bakery or the Wrinkled Egg. The proposed use also includes hosting tournaments with all of the added noise and traffic that would bring.

I’m afraid all this does for Historic Flat Rock is “suburbanize” it.

4. The Highland Golf Villas Homeowners Association called a meeting for their members and the Staton Woods homeowners for Wednesday, October 26, at the Henderson County Public Library. Many other members of the community came as well.After the meeting, I wrote a recap of what I heard:

Here’s an update on the meeting held last night about the proposed county acquisition of the Highland Lake Golf Club for development of a soccer complex:

• The meeting was called by the Highland Golf Villas Homeowners Association (HOA) primarily for their development as well as Staton Woods (right across the creek) but others were welcome.
• Ed Foster, head of the HOA, handled the meeting.
• Since the Villas had called the meeting, their homeowners spoke first.
• One of the first questions was about legal recourse. Ed said that the HOA would be talking today (Thursday) with legal counsel to investigate their options. The Highland Golf Villas HOA is spearheading this effort, so if you have any questions about the steps they’re taking (or any help you can offer), contact Ed.
• Concerns ranged from loss of view to noise to crime to questions about the county’s handling of the purchase negotiations. There was also concern that Course Doctors, the company that owns the golf course, is also slated to develop the soccer complex—is this a conflict of interest or a conflict with the county rules on bidding out projects.
• After homeowners from the Villas spoke, the floor was opened to all. Many people from Highland Lake Village (the development across from the Inn) spoke up and expressed their concerns.
• The general consensus seems to be that a soccer complex would negatively affect not only the homeowners surrounding the golf course but the area in general with increased noise, traffic, crime, and both light and car pollution. There was also concern about how the county handled the deal.
• The Henderson County commissioner who specifically represents Flat Rock (district 1) is Mike Edney, commission chair. He is in favor of the soccer complex, but it never hurts to let elected officials hear from their constituents. His office number is 828.697.4808 and his email is jmedney@hendersoncountync.org

The Village of Flat Rock is having an agenda meeting this Monday (10/31) at 9:30 to set their agenda for the next general council meeting (11/10). I believe the HOA and others plan to ask that this issue be put on the council’s agenda. I will be at the Monday meeting and will let you know what, if anything, happens.

Also, please write the Times-News to let them know how the community feels about this.  Click here to see my letter to the editor published in today’s paper. I wrote this on Saturday, the paper called on Tuesday to verify I was a real person, and it was published today, so it can take a few days but the more letters against this they receive, the more they should publish.

5. I sent a letter to the editor that was published on Thursday, October 27:

To the editor: Proponents of the proposed soccer complex say that the county must acquire the Highland Lake Golf Club to build new fields because the fields at Jackson Park (a mere two miles away) are in “poor condition.”

Here’s a novel idea — take the $1.15 million that the county has to buy the golf course (and add in the unknown amount that will be needed to actually build the complex) and use it to upgrade and redo the fields at Jackson Park. Why leave the fields in disrepair when apparently there is more than enough money to fix them now?

Henderson County needs to take care of what it has already built, not spend money it doesn’t have to acquire property it can ill afford to develop.

 6.  A Times-News editorial again referenced the county purchase of the Highland Lake Golf Club in its editorial of October 28 calling for funding support for Balfour Education Center:

It is not ideal when one of our schools has to enter an online contest to pay for badly needed renovations, but the community should get behind Balfour Education Center’s quest to fix its dilapidated gym.

The county’s alternative school is seeking a $50,000 grant through the Clorox Power for A Bright Future contest....

A glance at PowerABrightFuture.com shows Balfour faces stiff competition from schools with pressing needs across the nation. The fact that the school has to participate in such a contest has at least one resident questioning Henderson County’s priorities.


“We can’t afford to fix this gym, but we can afford to lose property tax revenue on a bailed out golf course and pay $1.15 million (for starters) for a soccer complex? OK, I got it now,” said critic Dennis Justice in a Facebook post commenting on the Times-News’ article.

Justice was referring to the county’s decision to buy the 65-acre Highland Lake Golf Club with funding help from the Henderson County Soccer Association, Park Ridge Health and Boyd Automotive. That move has plenty of residents questioning the priorities of the Henderson County Board of Commissioners, coming as it did on the heals of a 7.5 percent cut for schools and all county departments.

Whatever residents feel about that decision, or about a school having to enter a contest to fix its run-down gym, Balfour deserves support....

And on to Timeline of events: Part 3...