The owners of The Bluffs in St. Francisville are planning a new section within the development that will consist of 19 estate lots ranging in size from nearly two acres to more than 13 acres.
The Arbors at The Bluffs, as the new section will be known, spans 107 wooded acres that are bordered by Freeland Road, the golf course and Wood Duck Lake.
Plans for the development will be introduced at tonight’s meeting of the West Feliciana Planning and Zoning Commission, which will vote on the matter at its August meeting.
Attorney and developer Ken Carter, who acquired The Bluffs in September 2015 with co-owner Jerry Dodson, says individual lots will be developed according to the specifications of the owners. Some potential buyers have expressed an interest in building large homes with direct access to the golf course. Others have suggested they’d like smaller homes set deep in the woods.
“We will draft covenants and restrictions to suit their interests,” Carter says. “We’ve had interest from a wide variety of people from Natchez to Baton Rouge, including writers and artists. The interest has been overwhelming.”
Carter describes estate lots as those of at least two or so acres.
Prices have not been set for the lots, but Carter says the largest tracts would list for at least $30,000 per acre and smaller ones would more likely be priced in the range of $100,000 per acre.
“I don’t want to give exact prices yet but I can comfortably say that they will be priced right and they will be affordable,” he says.
The 107-acre property on which The Arbors at The Bluffs will be developed was not part of the original deal in 2015, when Carter and Dodson acquired the 30-year-old Planned Unit Development for $2.5 million—a price that was deeply discounted from seller Claude Penn’s $11.3 million asking price.
The developers acquired the 107-acre tract in a separate deal early this year and Carter says they began looking into the market for larger lots. Demand, he says, was “pleasantly surprising.”
Carter says once he receives planning commission approval he will begin infrastructure work, which will include cutting a new road through part of the area. He also hopes to start selling smaller lots in the front of the development as soon as late summer.
—Stephanie Riegel
