A conditional rezoning application for a high-end resort with a hotel, spa, restaurant and tap room was approved 7-0 by members of the Henderson County Planning Board last week.

The request is to conditionally rezone approximately 50.19 acres of land from Residential Two to Mixed Use Conditional zoning. The application now heads to county commissioners for consideration.

The property is located at 2075 N. Rugby Road, about a half of a mile north of Rugby Drive. The owner and applicant is Highway LLC.

The subject area was most recently used as a boarding school for girls, but the existing structure remains, along with several on-site amenities.

Residential uses surround the property to the north, east and south. Agricultural uses are to the west and north. Riverstone subdivision is north of the property.

The site plan includes a hotel with 12 rooms, 25 yurts and four bathhouses, a pool, bakery and 25-person capacity restaurant open to the public, day spa and a barn with a tap room and upper residence for the owner.

The developer and applicant is Kevin High, who plans to relocate here from the Charleston, South Carolina area.

The site plan also includes 66 parking spaces to accommodate all the property uses, which fulfills the land development code’s requirement of 51 spaces. The basketball court on the property would be retrofitted for a tennis court.

As a conditional rezoning application, and if approved, the property may only be used as shown by the site plan and limited by any conditions attached by the Technical Review Committee, Planning Board and Board of Commissioners.

A neighborhood compatibility meeting was held earlier this month on the rezoning application. High told the approximately 25 residents who attended that he was planning a "high-end destination for a higher-end clientele," according to an outline of the meeting. Nearly 30 questions were presented by the nearby residents.

High clarified that the plans are not for a brewery, only a tap room, and no trucks and no distribution are planned.

The 4,320-square-foot barn with taproom would also be open to the public. The restaurant and tap room will not be open past 11 p.m., according to the developer.

Residents expressed concern about possible noise and flooding. Hundreds of trees will be planted, which will buffer noise, the developer said. The yurts are also to be placed on a fixed platform, according to the application.

The board recommended several other conditions to the applicant, which include a vegetative buffer consisting of 500 trees along the southern border of the subject area; a 2-feet-tall berm along the southern border of the subject area to mitigate storm water runoff; and an 11 p.m. noise curfew.