was envisioned from a newspaper ad, describing 400 A (250 HA) of available land for sale, suitable for development.  With the energy and naivity of my thirty-some years and a background working with local land developers, I jumped right in.  The first foray into this unknown territory was a rebuff from the owner and the municipal authorities, based on a concept that did not fit existing ordinances.

Regrouping, I went without my former partner and idea-man, readdressed the situation based on the rules of the municipal departments, and developed a concept that consisted of  

- 190 single-family estate lots, for 500+ population;
- walk-up apartment-style housing for an additional population of 2,000;
- housing with public trails along the 2.5 miles (4 km) of riverfront;   
- championship 18-hole golf course on unbuildable land;   
- resort / hotel, clubhouse, and restaurant complex;  
- Class 6 self-contained sewage treatment facility;
- access from two sides (ie. adjacent existing roadways); 
- construction of a major viaduct/bridge to span the river and flood plain at one access point;  
- architectural and streetscape controls, including storm water swales and precast paving roadways;   
- utilizing an abandoned railway right-of-way as trail connection to town;  
- allowance for new flight paths into the adjacent airstrip; and   
- accommodation of flood plain adjustments with cut-and-fill remediation.

The project was financed by me, and led by me with a consortium of excellent professionals: planning engineer, golf course architect firm, and municipal department personnel at the local and county levels.  Proformas on the project were shared with many prospective investors, and with the downturn of the economy in 1990 the project was put on hold.  It was a unique learning process for me, a tremendous experience, and worth the effort. 

Many iterations of the focal area, the Resort, were created.  In 1989, there was one access route, the hotel/restaurant/golf course located at the end of the road.  The concepts below show some of these conceptual iterations, created to scale but subject to further design development.

In 1991, renewed interest caused me to revisit the project, make new arrangements for holding the options on the land, and creating more details for potential investors. Once again, the project ground to a halt, but not after considerable time and energy went into the layout of the resort component. Shortly afterwards, the project was unfortunately abandoned for lack of funding.

The York Pines project included marketing information, scanned copies below.  The four aspects of the development were outlined individually: Resort; Single-Family residences, Multiple-Family apartments, and Golf Course.

Site location map within the village boundaries.

Zoning map for the site.