ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997 TAG: 9703170004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-20 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RINER
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN/THE ROANOKE TIMES
Jon Altizer can look out from his deck at the rolling farmland behind his home off Virginia 8 and picture a manicured golf course as pleasing to his eye as rows of corn and alfalfa once were.
But others see Altizer's plan to build a golf course and up to 140 homes on his dairy farm as the latest example of growth intruding on pastoral Riner. Riner's fabled farms are giving way one by one as people looking for a little bit of country flock in.
Requests for housing and business rezonings in Riner have kept the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors busy for more than a year. Besides considering plans for a 215-acre golf course, county leaders have approved an Xpress Market, turned down a request for 20 town houses and bought 40 acres from a farming family to build a new elementary school.
For the Altizers, the golf course development appears the perfect solution to a declining dairy operation - and one that incorporates a passionate hobby.
But Riner neighbors have questions about the project:
How will developers provide utilities?
Will using ground water to irrigate the golf course affect the community's water tables and wells?
Do the developers have financial backing to make the development a reality with a golf course, 30 homes, 110 villas and an overnight lodge with at least 40 rooms?
While developers want to have the first nine holes open in June 1998, there's a lot of work to be done.
They have not released a total cost for the project, although they say they can build an 18-hole golf course and a clubhouse for $2.5million. They may face another million dollars in costs to bring sewer service to the property. The county wants a commitment to hook up to water and sewer when lines are available, and has asked the developers to split the $1.4million cost of upgrading a waste-water treatment plant planned for the area.
Residents will have a chance to comment on the project at a public hearing March 24 at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg. After the hearing, the Planning Commission will make a recommendation. The Board of Supervisors could decide on the project in May.
|--| The Altizers began talking about turning their farm into a golf course around 1992, as the dairy business started to dry up and wear on the family after decades of farming.
"Dairy farming hasn't been all that lucrative recently, and neither of the children was interested in continuing the farming tradition," said Ash Carlton of Manassas, one of two consultants working with the Altizers on the development.
The Altizers formed a partnership named Auburn Hills Golf Club with their friend and business associate Gary Webb and with lawyer Ralph Cummings.
They also connected with Algie Pulley Jr. of California, a golf course designer and a member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, through a neighbor. Carlton and Pulley are partners and have worked on three or four golf courses together. Carlton has prepared the business plan for the project and will oversee construction.
Pulley has designed some 50 golf courses, Carlton said, including Woodmere Country Club just outside Washington, D.C; Evergreen Country Club in Haymarket; and The Chardonnay Club in Napa Valley, Calif, a 36-hole development that has both a public and private course.
The Altizers don't want to reveal what kind of money they have behind their project. Carlton said the investors have not gone to banks for financing yet.
"We've had several local banks who have indicated if we seek some debt financing, they would like to talk to us about it," he said.
"We have not asked for anything. We have had some local investors come in. here, the people's attitudes are going to change. We've defined the golf course. We really don't have a projected overall cost for the development because there are unanswered questions" about water and sewer and how much of the project the county will approve, Carlton said.
Once an approved plan is on the board, "then we can put other numbers on it," he said.
David Reemsnyder, president and chief operating officer of Snyder-Hunt Corp. in Blacksburg, which has just built an upscale golf/residential community outside Richmond, said it can be prudent for developers to get county approval of such a project before lining up financing. "I don't find it at all unusual they are trying to get those [issues] reasonably well nailed down."
He also said it is possible to construct a clubhouse and golf course for $2.5 million. Reemsnyder estimated the cost of a modest course at $100,000 to $150,000 a hole, while a top-flight course could cost closer to $700,000 a hole - more than $12 million. Carlton, however, called those estimates "excessive" for this project and claimed an attractive course can be built without that kind of money.
Robert Lowman, owner of Loch Lowman, a nine-hole golf course on Belspring Road in Pulaski County, said the Auburn Hills developers have an advantage in already owning the land and its
naturally good terrain.
Still, Lowman said, "it's a difficult thing to sustain unless you've got a ton of money."
Golf courses depend on making enough money in six months to survive. "From September to April, you literally close down. So you've got a six-month business," Lowman said.
The developers plan to sell lifetime memberships for about $15,000. Thereafter, the course will be open to golfers who live in Auburn Hills' residential units and to the public. Greens fees are estimated at $30-$40 per round, higher for out-of-town guests, but lower for Montgomery County residents.
In comparison, members of the Blacksburg Country Club buy five shares of stock at $250, pay a one-time $750 initiation fee and about $2,100 a year for membership. Greens fees are $38.
A golf course, because it preserves green space, might be better received by Riner residents who have not reacted well to other development that has stripped away the countryside, said local banker Danny Hardy.
The changing face of Riner has raised enough concerns among residents that they created the Friends of Riner about a year ago to present a united voice on preserving Riner's rural character, its historic district and sense of community.
"I think most people would support the golf course if [the developers] could get it right," said Kitty Brennan, a member of the Friends of Riner and the Planning Commission and a cousin of Jon Altizer's.
Residents' concerns about the golf course include whether planned irrigation with ground water would affect the area's water table.
"We have not opposed the golf course, because it's green and it's nice and it has the houses right. They're in such a manner that they're not too visible from the road," Brennan said.
"The main thing is we're just so concerned about water. People are actually worried about their wells," she said. "If you have no water, your house is worthless, and this is one of the big concerns in the area."
As in many rural areas, growth has preceded basic infrastructure in Riner.
Planning Director Joe Powers said Riner began developing only in the last five to 10 years. "We really don't seem to have the infrastructure there in anticipation of the growth."
Before more developments grow on Riner's hillsides, some residents want to see improvements to Virginia 8, the two-lane highway through Riner that starts at the Christiansburg town limits and runs through Floyd County.
But those improvements are not on the drawing board, according to Dan Brugh, resident engineer for the Christiansburg office of the Virginia Department of Transportation. "While we would all like to be proactive and do improvements prior to development, we're so far behind now on already-identified needs that we can't do that." Virginia 8 is behind such costly projects as Alternative 3A and even the widening of Peppers Ferry Road, Brugh said.
Charlie Bowles, a Friends of Riner member, fears newcomers don't fully appreciate what they're choosing when they move to Riner.
"People every day move here from Blacksburg and Christiansburg. They don't want to smell the manure. They don't want to hear the saw mill ... but they want to live in the country." One person who moved from Blacksburg to Riner called the Sheriff's Office to complain a skunk was in her yard, he said.
Altizer understands the concerns about keeping Riner rural. His family's roots run deep in the community. The farm has been in operation for more than 50 years. His father gained Grade A status in the dairy business in 1948.
The Altizers sold their dairy cows in September 1994. Two months later, Altizer brought in 50 beef cows, which produced two groups of calves before they were sold in November.
He says reaction to his plans has generally been positive, but he understands why some might wonder why a longtime farmer would settle on a golf resort as the perfect solution to declining farming opportunities.
"I would have never dreamed it, either," Altizer said. But after years of milking cows morning and evening, seven days a week, no vacation and no holidays, "it just kind of gets to you.''
"Katy [Altizer's wife] and I been playing golf for a while, and we were looking for something to do with the farm," Altizer said. "We felt that a golf course is probably the most beautiful place besides a green field of alfalfa and corn, so we began to look into it."
The Altizers also believe the golf course would be good for the county economy. In the first year, the golf course alone would create 34 jobs and a $400,000 payroll, Jon Altizer predicted.
For Katy Altizer, the transition to golf fan was slow. Her parents were avid golfers, but she had no interest in the game until she and her husband went to a golf course off Belspring Road about 10 years ago.
Today, she says, "I'd rather golf than eat."
LENGTH: Long : 175 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. Katy Altizer oftenby CNBworks on her chipping in her front yard. 2. Katy Altizer's love for
golf shows even on the side of the farm garage that sits along Route
8 in Riner. She commissioned an artist to draw a cartoon for each
side of the garage. color. iGraphic: Color map.