Hoshino Resorts, the 100-year-old Japanese company with an eye on Sharon Springs, checked another item off its to-do list Wednesday when the Joint Planning Board approved its request for what’s essentially a zoning change.
The Schoharie County Planning Commission has already backed the request; the Village of Sharon Springs has to agree to it as well and is waiting on a written request from the JPB before issuing its decision.
Even with all of the OKs, review of the project once it’s more than a concept is expected to take 1-2 years.
And right now, it’s just a concept.
Deciding exactly where up to 40 mostly-hidden bungalows will fit on the 50-acre Main Street site—and into the environment—while preserving the historic Magnesium Temple—will come once the village agrees to the request for a Planned Commercial Development District, said Libby Clark, attorney for Hoshino.
The changes are needed “to see if it works, if it’s palatable. It will take nine months to work out the details. Then they’ll make the decision to move” ahead, Ms. Clark said.
All of the uses proposed for the project are allowed on different pieces of the properties owned by Denise Kelly and Glenn Goldfarb at 247 Main Street and David Cunningham on Beechwood Road, Ms. Clark said; “harmonizing” them into a PCDD would allow Hoshino the most flexibility to work with the landscape.
The intent, Ms. Clark said, is to have something that “would blend in. There would be a very small change from what everyone sees today” from Main Street with 75 percent of the land untouched.
“Every single one of these resorts worldwide is different,” she said.
Hoshino has 60 resorts worldwide. If it goes ahead, the one in Sharon Springs would be the first in the United States.
As an onsen ryokan, a Japanese-style hot spring inn taking advantage of the village’s mineral springs, the resort would also feature a café—really a dining room—and walking trails for overnight guests; there would be no day use.
Employment would be local.
JPB members stressed the importance of maintaining what may be the village’s most iconic structure: the Magnesium Temple.
“It’s absolutely our intent to design the resort with the history of Sharon Springs in mind,” Ms. Clark said.
Village Zoning Code permits PCDDs.
While essentially, Hoshino’s request is a zoning change, technically, Ms. Clark said, the village would be allowing an “overlay” over existing zoning for an agreed upon period of time.
“If there’s no application, it goes away,” she said.
The PCDD also goes away if the eventual project isn’t approved, she said.