Story originally published in The Sylva Herald Feb. 13 edition
The 300 residents of the Village of Forest Hills could soon see their numbers double. Or more.
Brown Haven Homes proposed a plan to build 180 single family homes built in the donut hole, a former golf course spanning about 73 acres surrounded by single-family homes.
At a town meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4, Brown Haven CEO John Allen presented a potential plan for the new housing. The community, proposed to be named the Cove of Forest Hills, is set for about 180 single-family homes, each with an estimated quarter acre of land.
The starting price point of the homes isn’t concrete, but homes can be expected to range from $400-$700 thousand, Allen said.
Allen told the town council and 20 or so residents in attendance the plan would preserve about 50 percent of valley for green space with trails, forest and streams.
The goal of the additional section of housing is to house more families in the area, rather than provide more student housing, he said.
Greenlighting the development would require a zoning change made by the town council and community members protested the change and the plan.
The issue of traffic that 180 homes would bring to roads North Country Club Road was a hot topic among residents at the meeting.
The Cove of Forest Hills would likely cause significant congestion on roads, as many in the area are one-way. With only two entrances likely to be built, getting in and out of the community could become more difficult, more than one resident said.
Construction will also be a factor residents of Forest Hills will be faced with, as noise pollution and disruption building the community could take up to a decade. Allen said that Brown Haven Homes aims to be as courteous to the surrounding neighborhood as possible.
Taking in the plan and the changes it could make for the community, Rochelle Mau, a resident of Forest Hills, expressed her disinterest in the plan.
“That is an insult to us,” Mau said.
Many community members said they consider the valley near their homes to be close to their own driveways, and having a project this large with so many new homes could subtract from the calm and quiet sense of home they favor.
Forest Hills Mayor Marcia Almond has a more optimistic approach and says the plan could be a good thing for the community, she said in a follow-up interview.
“I’ve seen worse,” Almond said.
With the new housing, water and sewage would be built into the valley, providing water access to all of the community and raising property values.
“The sewer lines they put in the valley will save the village millions of dollars,” Almond said. “We can tap off of those. And having more homes will increase our tax revenues so we can do more for the Village.”
More housing could help with the current housing crisis in Jackson County, she said.
“Everybody who overlooks the valley, they like the view that there’s a golf course and most of them like the view they have now, because there’s no living behind them,” Almond said. “But there’s the fact that the entire country is under a housing shortage and crisis. Jackson County is no exception. Western Carolina University is growing, and this area was built to house Western employees and Western professors, because there was not housing for them.
“Historically, it has been a neighborhood of professors, and they’re still in great need as the University has grown. If we can develop in a way that is attractive with nice homes that attract professors, we can serve the community.”
Almond said this was the best proposal for that piece of land that she has seen. With the land currently up for sale, companies have been pitching ideas to build on the old golf course for some time.
“We’ll want to negotiate some, because the man has not even bought the property yet,” she said. “The reaction we had from our citizens the other night, I’m sure has him questioning whether or not he ought to do it. I’d like to see it go through, because the alternatives could be much worse.”
“Traffic is a major concern,” Vice Mayor Daniel Shields said. “There is already a substantial amount of traffic on both of the roads.”
Forest Hills is flanked by north and south Country Club Drive.
Almond has made preliminary inquiries about another entrance into Forest Hills she said.
The property belongs to Chris Green of Lone Wolf Investments in Bryson City. In 2019, he brought up the possibility of high-density development, such as apartments for students at nearby Western Carolina University.
That proposal was shot down.
Currently, the land has not yet been sold, and the plan is still in the early stages. If the project does get the greenlight, construction could start as early as next Spring.
