Bear Trap Dunes looks to remove additional commercial space
For the third time since its approval in 2000, Bear Trap Dunes LLC has returned to the Ocean View Town council, asking to reduce the commercial space.
When the vision for Bear Trap Dunes was created by the late Josh Freeman, he was excited to tell the council about the mix of single-family, multi-family and commercial uses that would make Bear Trap Dunes a premier community.
But today, about eight years later, the community has not been able to attract businesses. Its commercial areas are vacant, except for one office operated by Seacoast/Resort Quest Realty.
Skip Valliant, representing the realty company for Bear Trap, urged council members on Tuesday, Aug. 12, to understand how hard it is for a residential community to attract businesses. He said the community has not been able to sell or lease the remaining office space and now would like to turn the upstairs portions of the commercial space into residential units.
The space, located at 21 and 24 Village Green Drive, is currently zoned GB, general business, but with town approval could be rezoned residential, increasing the number of housing properties available at Bear Trap.
Already the town has approved more residential units than was originally agreed upon.
At first approval, Bear Trap was to consist of 700 residential units — 326 single-family, 160 townhouses and 214 multi-family units.
After two separate changes, Bear Trap now has 266 single-family homes, 199 townhouses, 27 row-houses and 208 multi-family units.
With the addition of these remaining units on Village Green Drive, it would take the total number of housing units to 704 — setting a precedent the town council is not sure it is comfortable with.
Councilman and Bear Trap Dunes resident Roy Thomas said he has five problems with the proposal, including the representation of the homeowner’s association, the promises made to residents who purchased at Bear Trap Dunes, the town code governing residential planned communities such as Bear Trap, the town’s comprehensive land-use plan and the precedent a positive decision might set.
“It is important to look at the history here. This project has gone from 35,000 square feet to 2,500 square feet,” said Thomas. “In 1999 … (the developer) made a big deal of what the building center would be.”
From 1999 to 2002, the floor space for commercial use was dropped from 35,000 to 20,000 square feet. Then, in 2007, another development representative came to the town with a new plan to reduce that floor space to 10,000 square feet, said Thomas.
“Again, the business plan didn’t work,” said Thomas. “Now you are back again. This raises a lot of questions.”
Residential golf courses were the wave of the future in 1999 and 2000, but today it seems they aren’t doing as well as expected.
Residents of the Salt Pond recently undertook a huge financial responsibility in purchasing their community’s golf course, aiming to preserve the feature when developers moved to sell it with possible additional residential development in the tract’s future.
Town council members are concerned Bear Trap Dunes could be going the same way.
What’s to stop Bear Trap owners from selling the golf course, or turning the whole property into a housing development, asked council members.
Valliant didn’t have that answer.
The council decided to leave the record of the hearing open for 30 days to allow for comments from the developer and residents of the community. A contingent of Bear Trap residents thanked the council for their time and consideration on Tuesday.