By Michael O’Hearn - The Crossroads Chronicle
The Cashiers Marketplace hearing resumed Monday night after a two-month hiatus with a brief update on where the project proposal stands and a discussion about what comes next.
Fritz Rybert, president of The Peachtree Group based in Atlanta, and Landmark Realty founding partner/broker Sam Lupas are the developers behind the Cashiers Marketplace proposal.
The proposal is a mixed-use development on 30.83 acres off Hwy. 107 South near its intersection with Frank Allen Road and contains a 110-room hotel, a fitness center/spa, 21 residential cottages, 24 residential flats, 30 hotel cabins, retail, restaurants, and 13.31 acres of greenspace with pocket parks and walking trails.
During the second day of the initial hearing on Nov. 16, Rybert told the Cashiers Planning Council the proposal had been altered from its original plan because he and Lupas worked out an agreement with a local utility company, Carolina Water Services, to provide water to the proposed site.
Rybert said the deal had been finalized on the eve of the second day of the initial quasi-judicial hearing.
Because the new agreement would do away with the drip field irrigation system originally proposed for the project, it was seen as a major change by the attorneys for Cashiers East Village, The Village Green, and Develop Cashiers Responsibly.
As a result, the quasi-judicial hearing was tabled until this month after the attorney for Cashiers East Village, John Noor, requested the meeting be postponed based on the new information that had come to light.
Following a 10-minute briefing on Monday night by Anthony Fox, Jackson County’s attorney for the hearing, the Cashiers Planning Council unanimously decided to recess the hearing until Feb. 26 at 5 p.m., which is the council’s next regular scheduled meeting.
“At the last meeting that we had, new information came to the council regarding the sewer and the treatment of the sewer on the site as per the application,” Fox said. “As a result of that, a motion was made, and a decision was held to allow for the applicant to provide for an amended application to show on the amended application how they would treat the sewer on the proposed development.”
Fox said at that time, it was anticipated that the applicant would have their new information to the county’s planning staff as well as the opposing parties so that they could review the amended application and provide the necessary expert testimony they would need to defend their position.
“We were told that the applicant has a contract with a provider and there’s some issues around that contract and that provider,” Fox said. “That is now being or is close to being worked through, that the additional information that would supplement the prior information provided for the amended application will be submitted to staff no later than Friday of next week, Feb. 2. With that submittal, then opposing counsel will have the opportunity to do the exercises that we had contemplated would be done before tonight, that is gather experts’ review and then we will be in the position to move forward with the continued hearing date if this council decides for the Feb. 26 date.”
He addressed another issue about the process of the hearing, in which he said the county’s planning staff will first make a presentation of the application, the applicant will then have an opportunity to present their evidence, which will be subject to cross examination, and then the parties with standing will present their information, which will also be subject to cross examination. Finally, after that process runs its course, there will be an opportunity for the public to have input through addressing the council.
In mid-November, the developers behind the Cashiers Marketplace proposal had an opportunity to present their project to the Cashiers Planning Council during a quasi-judicial hearing at the Cashiers library.
The hearing had attorneys for Cashiers Marketplace, The Village Green, Cashiers East Village, and Develop Cashiers Responsibly in attendance as well as the Cashiers Planning Council and members of the Jackson County Planning Department staff. The first day of the hearing also packed the Cashiers library’s community room with residents.
Cashiers Marketplace was formally introduced to residents at a community meeting in April 2023 at The Village Green, during which several residents voiced their concerns about the project. Those concerns ranged from traffic issues to the development being too dense.