Etowah is the new frontier for housing developments -- in a big way. Ahead of stricter land-use rules now pending before Henderson County commissioners, property owners have flooded planners with applications for new subdivisions, including an 874-home Arnold Palmer golf course development in the Pleasant Grove community south of Etowah.

Developers have submitted plans seeking approval for 2,569 subdivision lots already this year, more than the total of 2,428 lots the county approved all of last year and near the record of 2,647 new lots in 2005.

The total includes 1,783 homes in Etowah.

"Yeah, there is a lot of activity right now, particularly for Etowah," Planning Director Anthony Starr said. "If this continues on, it would smash any records we had before."

The transformation is disconcerting to natives like Opal Parkinson, who has lived all her 82 years on a 55-acre farm along the French Broad River. She said she had been hearing rumors about the sale of the Fullam Cremery and other lands across the river in the area locals call the Follies.

"It is troublesome to me thinking about it," she said. "There is a lot of traffic on the road now."

"I love my community and people in it and the people that have come in, they join the church and I get along with them, but I just hate to see everything go to houses."

A year's worth in eight weeks

How many more subdivisions might come in the remaining 10 months of 2007 is anyone's guess.

In eight weeks, the county Planning Department has received applications for 2,459 lots in major subdivisions covering 2,492 acres, Starr says. Land owners have also applied for 110 lots in minor or family subdivisions of 10 or fewer lots.

Henderson County was already considered the fastest growing county in the mountains, adding about 20,000 residents in the 1990s for 28.7 percent growth rate. The surge in new subdivision applications this year can be traced to several factors.

While the real estate market cooled nationwide, Henderson County, long a mecca for retirees, continues to grow as developers eye a baby boomer population nearing retirement. More people are also seeking to live in rural areas with natural beauty, helping to funnel development to unincorporated areas such as Etowah, where three of the four biggest projects are sketched out.

874 homes and Arnold Palmer golf

Mountain Development Co. of Asheville has submitted plans for 874 lots on 1,397 acres along with an Arnold Palmer golf course on a large swath of undeveloped woodlands off Pleasant Grove and Pleasant Grove Church roads south of Etowah.

The project, called Seven Falls, would include single-family homes, town houses and condominiums. It would join other upscale golf course developments in the area, such as Champion Hills on Willow Road and Kenmure in Flat Rock.

Another large subdivision is proposed just north of U.S. 64 off McKinney Road, not far from Etowah Valley Country Club. Biltmore Farms real estate development company is seeking approval for 641 single-family, duplex, triplex and quadplex homes on 518 acres. Mills River, last week, rejected that company's application for 109 cluster homes and town homes on nearby Turnpike Road.

Engineers for Seven Falls have not yet determined whether the development would be served by individual wells and septic tanks or community water and sewer, County Planner Matt Card said. The Biltmore Farms project might tie into the Etowah Sewer Co. but that has not yet been determined, Starr said.

Another project planned for Etowah, the Bluffs at Waters Edge, would result in 268 townhouses and single family homes on 76 acres off Eade Road. It was supposed to come before the Planning Board this month, but the developer has withdrawn the application to make some changes, Starr said.

Like Opal Parkinson, Mike Huggins has been hearing rumors of large tracts of Etowah land changing hands. Huggins, assistant chief of Etowah-Horse Shoe Volunteer Fire Department, said the his department usually gets detailed plans from the county of new subdivisions, their roads and lots. But in the case of the new subdivisions planned in Etowah, "we have not seen that yet."

"As far as the Fire Department is concerned, as these subdivisions grow we've got to grow with them," he said. "We have got a very good base of volunteers if we have to build more stations. The more houses there is, the more equipment it takes to protect them."

New land-use rules

The crush of development proposals comes as the county is preparing to pass all new zoning and subdivision rules, including proposals that would limit the density of housing in some rural areas to 1 1/2-acre lots for each home.

County Commissioner Chuck McGrady heard about several large developments in the works and asked county planning staff to compile the numbers since Jan. 1. McGrady said he was concerned Henderson County might also see a surge, similar to what Buncombe County faced when it began the process last year to regulate development on steep slopes.

The start of the year is usually a busy time when developers make plans for new housing so they can begin work in the spring. "But my impression is we are seeing more than what we would normally expect," McGrady said.

The Land Development Code will combine zoning, subdivision and other land use rules in a single document, updating a hodgepodge of rules, including some decades old. The county is preparing to hold five public hearings on the rules, but won't act until mid April at the soonest.

Asked if the surge indicates developers are seeking to get their projects approved under the existing rules, McGrady responded: "One certainly has that suspicion, that they want to protect their vested rights or make sure they are covered by the weaker provisions of our old ordinances."

What's else is coming?

Plans filed with Henderson County reveal details of some of the new subdivisions that would add 2,569 homes to Henderson County, the majority of them in the Etowah area.

Three projects planned for Etowah -- Seven Falls, the Hammond Tract (Biltmore Farms) and the Bluffs at Waters Edge -- are among the largest of 15 major subdivision requests filed since Jan. 1.

Seven Falls, the largest at 1,397 acres, was assembled from 39 separate land owners including the Fullam Creamery, which closed in December, County Planner Matt Card said. It would encompass the drainage of Folly Creek and several tributaries that flow through a wooded valley.

Seven Falls

Location: Pleasant Grove Road.
Developer: Mountain Development Co. of Asheville.
Size: 874 lots on 1,397 acres. Plans call for 240 housing units including 191 single family homes, 18 town houses and 36 condominiums located above some commercial lots. Housing unit plans feature Colorado influenced mountain rustic design. Home sites will be priced from the $300s with Golf Villas and Cottages starting in the $600s and custom homes from the $900s, according to the developer's plans.
Amenities: An Arnold Palmer Signature Golf Course is planned in a meadow in the valley to play out for nine holes before returning with the inward nine, plus a 30-acre practice and teaching facility. 500 acres would be set aside for open space with six miles of nature and hiking trails around waterfalls and along the French Broad River.
Density: Planned at 1.6 acres per housing unit. "It's a fairly low density project, but it's a large project," County Planning Director Anthony Starr said.
Utilities: The developer has not yet determined whether the project will be served by community water and sewer or individual wells and septic tanks.
Status: Master Plan scheduled to go to the Henderson County Planning Board for approval in April.

Hammond Tract (Biltmore Farms)

Location: Northeast Etowah between McKinney Road and the French Broad River. The land is now owned by Annette Hammond, John Thomas Hammond and Grattan Hammond Jr.
Developer: Biltmore Farms
Size: 641 lots on 518 acres, including single-family, duplex, triplex and quadplex housing units.
Amenities: 210 acres of green space with 8.65 miles of trails.
Status: Subdivision plan expected to come before the planning board in the next few months.

Bluffs at Waters Edge

Location: Eade Road, off old U.S. 64 West in Etowah. The property is owned by the estate of Pauline Sumner, county planners said.
Size: 268 units, including townhouses and single-family homes, on 76.3 acres.
Amenities: 36 acres of recreation area and 17 acres of common area.
Utilities: The city of Hendersonville would supply the water for the subdivision but the sewer system would be serviced by the Etowah Sewer Co. or a community package plan, Card said.
Status: Associated Land Surveyors, agent for the developers, submitted an application to be included in the Planning Board's February meeting, then withdrew it to make changes. "There's a good possibility this project could change in a major way," Card said.