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A Beaver Creek horticulturalist is hoping to establish an orchard and cidery at the Springbrooke events facility and golf course.
Sean McFarland applied for a conditional use permit requesting an ag classification for the property so he can grow apples for cider and wine under a Minnesota Farm Winery License.
The application was submitted April 3 by Springbrooke owner Rick Gourley.
McFarland would lease the property — including the restaurant, bar, event center and part of the golf course — from Gourley to operate his agritourism business.
Beaver Creek City Council members heard McFarland’s proposal at their Wednesday, April 12, meeting.
“Successful wineries operate all around the region,” he told council members. “However, no true cideries operate within 200-plus miles of Sioux Falls.”
“True” cider is made from pure pressed cider-specific apples and has no added sugar or flavors.
“Beaver Creek has the opportunity to offer a winery and pumpkin- and apple-picking experience where none exists in the immediate area,” McFarland said.
The cider presses would be in the current Springbrooke building or in a newly constructed building nearby.
A tasting room would be in the lower-level existing bar, and McFarland would use Gourley’s existing liquor license, pending his own background checks and other paperwork clearing.
Apple trees would be planted in tight rows in and around the golf course “adding to the beauty and increasing the golf course’s playability by creating obstacles and hazards,” McFarland wrote in the permit application.
There would be roughly 1,000 trees that would take up about 2 to 3 acres of the 52-acre property. Pumpkin patches would grow among them.
“The community will benefit from a business that welcomes and attracts all people of all ages, interests and incomes,” he said. “Local businesses will benefit from increased visitors to our city.”
Blackshire Farms
McFarland and his wife, Marcella, have operated Blackshire Farms since 2016 west of Beaver Creek near the intersection of County Road 4 and 70th Avenue.
The farm has a pick-your-own pumpkin patch, honeybees, heirloom raspberry patches, rhubarb and strawberry beds, asparagus and personal produce gardens.
The Blackshire orchards include 2,000 heirloom cider apple trees that are maturing on schedule for a half crop this year and a full crop next year, when they plan to start pressing for cider.
“I have a vision for a cidery, and we’ve been working toward this for 10 years,” McFarland said.
When Springbrooke became available for rent, he said it was an opportunity worth exploring for his own business and to benefit the community.
“Increased visitors may increase demand for vacant lots in city limits,” McFarland said.
“The city government will benefit from increased tax revenue. The building itself will benefit from increased revenue that will ensure upkeep and renovations through the years.”
Farm winery license requires farming in town
Farm wineries are given a special status in Minnesota’s liquor laws to encourage and support the fledgling farm winery industry.
He said a farm winery license would allow him to harvest apples and sell the fruit and cider, but statute requires licensees to operate on land zoned or permitted for ag use.
In order to have a farm winery at Springbrooke, the property would need to be zoned or permitted for agriculture use. It’s currently zoned residential and industrial, and Beaver Creek’s ordinance doesn’t allow zoning for agricultural purposes.
For council members to accommodate McFarland’s request, they’d have to change the city ordinance — a costly and time-consuming measure that would require public notices and public hearings. (Gourley has offered to share those costs.)
At that point, the council could act on McFarland’s request for a conditional use permit, which also requires public notice and comment.
Conditions would include, among other things, no commercial livestock and no industrial farming activities except those directly relating to production of cider and wine.
Part of the property near the pumphouse and maintenance shed is already zoned industrial and could possibly allow for McFarland’s retail pumpkin growing and selling.
However, the Springbrooke building and golf course are zoned residential, and a farm winery license would require rezoning it for ag use.
Council denies request
McFarland’s proposal is backed by a detailed business plan and was advised by Flaherty and Hood municipal attorney Alyssa Harrington, who specializes in ordinances and permitting.
He shared her contact information with the council.
Council members listened with interest to the proposal, and among other questions they wanted to know if the golf course would remain a golf course.
“Out of respect for the people building homes there, it would be fair for it to remain a golf course,” council member Al Harnack said.
McFarland assured them he had no intention of changing the golf course, which Gourley intends to redevelop after 15 years of being closed.
Mayor Josh Teune said he’d discussed McFarland’s proposal with Beaver Creek’s city attorney Jennifer Reinke of Eisma and Eisma, who advised the city to deny the request for now.
“I think for now we have to follow our attorney’s advice and deny the permit,” Teune said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t revisit it.”
Harnack suggested tabling the request until the council had more information, but Teune said there wasn’t time for that.
The April 2 conditional use application request would automatically go into effect as submitted if it’s not acted on within 60 days.
Because the ordinance and permit process would take nearly two months, the council opted to deny the request for now.
“It doesn’t hurt my feelings not having it approved tonight,” McFarland said at the meeting.
“So long as we can talk about it again in a future context. … I’m a squeaky wheel; you’ll be hearing from me.”