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New meeting set for Dec. 10; time to be announced

TRYON—The Tryon Board of Planning and Adjustment tabled a decision to rezone the old St. Luke’s Hospital property on Carolina Drive. 

The board met Thursday afternoon in front of a standing room only crowd. 

Many residents were concerned about the rezoning, from R-2 (residential) to GB (General Business). 

Dorothy Easley and Tom Brylowe are trying to purchase the property to eventually turn it into their residence and have offices for their businesses. In order to do the renovations and have businesses there, the zoning needs to be changed to GB. 

The board tabled the rezoning after hearing comments and discovering there is another option to ensure future purchases would not be able to put just anything allowed in the GB district. 

A special meeting was set for Dec. 10 for the Tryon Board of Planning and Adjustment to consider rezoning the property by conditional use. That would mean the current property owners would be limited on uses as well as any future tenants. Conditional use means that any new use has to be approved by the town. 

Tryon Town Council has also set a special meeting for Dec. 11 following the board of planning and zoning’s recommendation. Both times for the meetings will be announced at a later date. 

Easley and Brylowe said this week they are trying to restore the historic building, which was first constructed as the first St. Luke’s Hospital in 1929. Once the hospital moved to Columbus in 1973, the building was used by Polk County as the department of social services and the Meeting Place Senior Center until another building was purchased in Columbus to house those services several years ago. 

Easley said this week the property needs protection from vandalism, the roof is rotting and needs repair promptly and the land needs replanting. 

Easley, now an appellate lawyer, used to be a research forest geneticist. Brylowe works on patents for certain gun parts and can have an office and shop to work on those parts he makes by hand, Easley said. 

Easley said most of what would occur initially would be to repair the roofs to protect the structure, controlling the kudzu and re-planting.