Developers are teeing up plans to build a 175-lot RV development next to Fairways at Last Hill Golf and Country Club near Eckville.
“We have an existing campground that we’re redeveloping and expanding into an RV park,” said Doug Bender, a developer and one of the owners of the golf course.
The plan is to build the project in phases, and if all necessary approvals are lined up, the first 40 lots could be available in the spring of 2010.
“At this particular juncture, we’re doing the engineering and going through the process with Lacombe County for rezoning and subdivision,” said Bender, whose family owns Enzo Developments of High River. He hopes to begin construction in late summer or early fall.
Fairways Park at Last Hill will feature fully serviced lots with telephone and Internet hook-ups. Owners of the bare land condominium lots will get free golf memberships.
“It would be more of a gated, family-oriented community,” he said. “In conjunction with the RV park we would put in some amenities, like a clubhouse for the use of residents.”
Tennis and volleyball courts, horseshoe pits, walking trails, playgrounds and water features are also planned for the resort, which will cover 30 acres. An existing campground will be kept for now, but will be reserved for golf course users.
The market will determine how quickly the RV resort builds out.
“We’ve proposed it over a five-year period. We haven’t really done any marketing on the project.
“There is interest in it. It fills a need for the weekend RVer. The choices of locations are getting fewer, instead of more.”
An open house earlier this month drew only eight people and few major concerns were raised. Questions have been raised about water, waste water and drainage. Those are expected to be addressed in water and sewer technical studies already underway.
It is hoped that wastewater can be treated and used to irrigate the neighbouring golf course.
The Fairways group has made a commitment to ban ATVs from the RV park out of deference to neighbours.
A number of improvements are being made to the 18-hole golf course that has been open since 1982 and was sold to Bender’s group last April.
Sand bunkers and cart paths were rebuilt last year and drainage and contouring work will be done this year to take the course up a notch from a typical country layout.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com