Business

Commissioners demand a second look at gated community on Sugarloaf Road

Engineer’s drawing shows site plan for Cottages at Sugarloaf Meadows at 1936 Sugarloaf Road. Commissioners expressed misgivings about the two closest to the road (left) and asked the developer to move or eliminate those lots.

By Bill Moss, Published: April 15, 2025

A developer who wants to build a gated community of 50 homes on Sugarloaf Road was expected to come back before the Board of Commissioners this week with possible changes to the plans to address concerns commissioners raised in a hearing last week.

The developer of the Cottages at Sugarloaf Meadow is seeking a conditional-use zoning to build the subdivision on 31 acres that would also include pickleball courts, a dog park, playground and restrooms in a recreation area.
After evaluations by the county’s technical review committee and the planning board, the advisory groups recommended conditions that would include lighting mitigation, septic system approval, limiting hours of the recreational amenities from dawn to dusk and requiring homebuyers to sign a statement acknowledging that their lots are next to active farmland.
County commissioners want to go further, raising questions last week about two homes close to Sugarloaf Road, the proximity of septic tanks to homes, the length of the driveways and the price of the homes. The board was scheduled to resume discussion of the rezoning application during its regular mid-month meeting on Wednesday.
It’s unclear exactly what the price point would be for the homes. In their initial application, developer Rick Moore and engineer Tyler Wagner submitted a site plan showing 2,500-square-foot two-story, three bedroom homes. At the Board of Commissioners hearing last Monday night, Wagner reduced that projected size to 1,500 to 1,800 square feet and declared: “It could definitely be workforce housing. It’s really kind of aimed toward working class.”
Noting that the developers had purchased the land for $1,025,000 last September, Commissioner Michael Edney tried to draw from Wagner an idea of the homes’ price.
“You’ve got $20,000 (invested) per lot before you even turn a piece of dirt,” he said. “So when you say workforce housing do you mean for doctors and people like that?”
When Edney asked whether the homes could cost a half-million dollars, Wagner responded, “Around that.”
“A lot of folks around here can’t afford that,” Edney said.

While the developer described the Sugarloaf Road homes as workforce housing, he also said they’d be modeled after the Cottages of Byron Forest (above), where homes sell for $650,000 to $780,000.
The developers also have said the Cottages at Sugarloaf Meadows would be modeled after the Cottages of Byron Forest, a new subdivision they recently completed off Banner Farm Road in Horse Shoe. Recent closing prices in Byron Forest include $664,200 for a 1,706-square-foot home, $753,200 for a 2,423-square-foot home and $719,800 for a 1,980-square-foot home.
Surrounding residential development on Sugarloaf is “more geared toward workforce housing,” Commissioner Rebecca McCall said, “so if it wasn’t, it's gonna stick out and look odd,”

Homes close to road present ‘a serious hazard’

Board of Commissioners Chair Bill Lapsley, a retired civil engineer, expressed misgivings about the two homes in the subdivision closest to Sugarloaf Road.
“Sugarloaf Road is a main thoroughfare. I think this presents a very dangerous situation,” he said. “That’s not acceptable to me. I believe those two units present a serious hazard. All we need is a car or truck to lose control and they’ll be in their bedroom or their kitchen. I would ask the applicant to consider deleting those two units.”
The site plan showed that at four of the units “you’ve got the drain field basically right up against the unit,” Lapsley said. “I would submit to you that those lots may not get permitted with the drain fields that close to the building.”
Commissioners also wanted to ensure that homebuyers would know about the adjoining farmland. To achieve that, a proposed condition would require the developer to “record on each lot an agricultural awareness statement notifying buyers of the close proximity to working agricultural lands and Voluntary Agricultural Districts.”