Editorial—Christmas present in the form of Sanctuary Pointe

Maybe, just maybe, Santa will leave something special beneath the collective Christmas tree for Oconee County. It could be the signing of an agreement that, at last, will make true the prospects for a valuable piece of public land at the Lake Hartwell end of Oconee County. In recent years, the project has been known as Sanctuary Pointe. It has been touted as a possible location for a hotel, for golf course, for a restaurant, for retail shops, and associated lake access. The peninsula has often been projected as a place for a public-private partnership—-between the state and the Army Corps of Engineers and private developers who would invest to make it come to be.

 

The history of the project has had many stops and starts. Such as 1990 when one newspaper, in out-of-breath reporting, predicted that a deal to bring a major hotel there appeared to be a cinch. All that was left, according to the Sheraton Hotel official quoted, was the formality of signing the bottom line. But, of course, it never happened.

But this time may be the time something good happens, and that’ll be good for entire county of Oconee, from Fair Play to Salem, from Long Creek to Pointe West.

That’s our view. What’s yours?