The Waitsfield Development Review Board will hear a proposal to amend the master plan for Riders’ Outpost to add six cabins and six tent sites to the lodge and restaurant.
The board will consider the proposal at an April 11 meeting at 7 p.m. Riders’ Outpost is located at 7575 Main Street on the former Egan’s Big World/Mad Bush Lodge property south of Rolston Road. Jonny Adler purchased the building in early 2022 and received Waitsfield DRB approval for his master plan in June 2022.
EXTENSIVE RENOVATIONS
With the addition of the six cabins and six campsites (accommodating up to 10 Lotus Belle tents) Adler said that an estimated maximum of 79 people could be hosted on site. Adler and his partners have undertaken extensive renovations at the property to create a recreational outpost with lodging, a 54-seat restaurant and retail and bike repair facility at the site.
That work has included permitting an upgraded wastewater system, he said. The wastewater permit shows 36 sleeping spaces in the inn (19 rooms) and 24 sleeping spaces in the cabins/tent sites if there are six tents. That number increases to 32 in the cabins/tents if there are 10 tents. The master plan also calls for a bunk room/apartment which will accommodate up to nine sleeping spaces. Adler said that the specific configuration of the bunk room/apartment is still being determined.
The proposed cabins will be 200 square feet with a bathroom, king bed, desk, small covered porch, windows on all sides and house two people. The cabins will be four-season. The campsites will be seasonal and will utilize a two-season bathhouse featuring three toilet stalls and vanities and outdoor showers, including one of each that is ADA accessible. The bathhouse is to be operational from May 1 to October 31.
Per the application that the DRB will hear next week, the camping pads need no infrastructure other than being level and well drained. The tents will be fully furnished and sold as luxury camping. The plan calls for keeping one yurt erected in the winter for use as a common area.
The permit amendment application calls for increasing parking from 42 spaces to 58.
If approved the cabins would be built this fall. Adler is hopeful that the inn and restaurant will open this summer.
Riders’ Outpost is located in Waitsfield’s Adaptive Redevelopment Overlay District which is specifically designed to allow former lodging properties (among other types of properties) to be redeveloped and reused.
NEED TO MEET SETBACKS
The cabins and tent platforms will need to meet the district setbacks in terms of property boundaries and will need to meet the setback from Folsom Brook which runs through the property. Waitsfield’s zoning does not specifically permit campgrounds in any district of the town, although the Adaptive Redevelopment Overlay District does reference camps when discussing accessory housing.
The relevant section of that district uses reads: “Housing allowed within this overlay district is limited to (i) the conversion of an existing lodging facility to multi-family housing as part of a Planned Unit Development; and (ii) employee or student housing that is accessory to and retained in common ownership with the principal use(s) of the property. Accessory housing may include single or multi-family housing units, group housing (e.g., dormitories), seasonal housing (e.g., camps) or caretaker apartments.”
Additionally, the zoning does define primitive camps as structures under 1,500 square feet including cabins, yurts, shelters, tents which are used on a temporary basis and have no plumbing.
At the same meeting next week, the board will also hear an appeal by Ed and Courtney Spaulding of a notice of violation for placing a storage container on their property at the bottom of Center Fayston Road without a permit and within the front setback.
