Land for a club, etc.

[hunterisgreat]

I was thinking of getting some land and building a clubhouse, maybe a few seperate ~600sqft cabins on it. The idea being it would be a place to train (currently have to share fields with other sports), a place to track (hard in the city), and to host seminars where folks don't need to get hotels and can stay on site. Possible also rent the whole shebang out to there clubs/sports that could make use of such a facility. How much land do you think would be considered a minimum? Anyone know what sort of land zoning would apply? I assume hunting/recreational land, or agri/farm/horse land would legally fit the bill

[Lauri & The Gang]

If you are building cabins for rental I believe it would be a business zoning.

[Bear GSD]

My SIL has an antique mall on some land in Johns Island that she is currently trying to sell. It has a big building there currently that might fit your needs. I don't know about zoning or anything you could go check it out and see if it has potential.
Relics Antique Mall
3881 Savannah Hwy
Johns Island, SC

[hunterisgreat]

Originally Posted by Lauri & The Gang

If you are building cabins for rental I believe it would be a business zoning.

I dont believe so. I know someone who does the exact same thing but for dirtbikes and such and his is on ~27k acres

[hunterisgreat]

Originally Posted by Bear GSD

My SIL has an antique mall on some land in Johns Island that she is currently trying to sell. It has a big building there currently that might fit your needs. I don't know about zoning or anything you could go check it out and see if it has potential.
Relics Antique Mall
3881 Savannah Hwy
Johns Island, SC

That is literally 4 miles from my house lol

[Bear GSD]

Originally Posted by hunterisgreat

That is literally 4 miles from my house lol

You should check it out and see if it might fit your needs and budget. She has been trying to sell it for a while now.

[KJenkins]

I lot will have to do with how much of the land you purchase is actually usable land. You will have much more usable space with something square/rectangle and flat versus hills, gullies and shaped weird.

If your looking to have your own place to track and enough to host trials I would look to at least 40-50 acres.

2 acres for a regulation field.
1 acre for out buildings
2 acres parking and access.

Remainder as tracking. To give yourself some room and to make a regulation sized IPO3 track you're looking at about 4 acres a track. 12 IPO3 dogs will take up over 35 acres if they're done correctly and you don't want to worry about cramming everything into a postage stamp sized field.

[hunterisgreat]

Originally Posted by KJenkins

I lot will have to do with how much of the land you purchase is actually usable land. You will have much more usable space with something square/rectangle and flat versus hills, gullies and shaped weird.

If your looking to have your own place to track and enough to host trials I would look to at least 40-50 acres.

2 acres for a regulation field.
1 acre for out buildings
2 acres parking and access.

Remainder as tracking. To give yourself some room and to make a regulation sized IPO3 track you're looking at about 4 acres a track. 12 IPO3 dogs will take up over 35 acres if they're done correctly and you don't want to worry about cramming everything into a postage stamp sized field.

Right now I'm looking at stuff in the 100-150 acre range

[KJenkins]

Nice. Thing to remember is if you want pristine tracking you will have to keep the fields in good shape which will include regular cuttings. That much land you could have one area plowed and tilled for dirt tracking. That would be ideal.

[martemchik]

I'm the treasurer of my club...since we're legal and official with the town we're in...we are zoned as a commercial property due to the fact that we accept dues for providing a service. Other towns might not be as strict but I know originally when the land was gifted to the club it had to be rezoned since its in a residential zone. We don't have anywhere near that amount of land but we could hold some pretty large trials (AKC). We'd have the room to do Schutzhund obedience/protection but not track.

We don't get that many rentals. You'd be surprised at what people want and what they want to actually pay for it. Most times they want the fields at the same time you or your club do, and depending on your area it might be useless to pay you for a tracking field when there is land owned by the county that could be used for free (I know our tracking class just uses county land for tracking). We also don't get too many show/trial rentals because we're outdoors and people like a guaranteed show (I know in Schutzhund it doesn't matter) but the AKC clubs are much more prominent and have a lot more people than Schutzhund clubs (at least in my area).

The main thing you have to look into is the taxes on that land and could you get enough member fees/training fees/rental fees to cover that amount. Tell you the truth...its probably a lose money scenario if you have to take out a mortgage and pay interest. We are lucky enough to not have to pay a mortgage and just have to cover the property taxes yearly, so member dues can stay relatively low and we can still make improvements.

I guess if its large enough you could rent it out in pieces...but again you need to gauge the demand for such a need. If someone can do it for free on state/county land...they'll probably not really be interested in paying you any kind of significant fee.

Now that I thought about it...we probably have about 10 acres. Its around 700 just to cut the grass every quarter (might depend on your area). But the costs of maintaining such a place really add up.