High-minded: Developers set lofty standards at Mountain Air

Unique airstrip grounds pilots (happily) in mountain community

Mountain Air is just 45 minutes from Asheville, NC, but about as private as a golf community gets. Sure, many communities are cloistered behind imposingly high gates, but how many of those communities are nearly 5,000 feet high, a good 15-minute winding drive up from a state road, and with a landing strip at the top of the mountain?

Mountain Air, located near the town of Burnsville, is different in a number of ways. Not only does its 2,900-foot runway span the entire mountaintop, but it also cuts right through the dramatic Scott Pool designed 18-hole golf course. During my round there, I was stopped for 10 minutes by flashing red lights warning of an impending takeoff, adding to the “drama” of a round that was played, at times, on the edge of a cliff.
During the summer, the landing strip is in frequent use, especially on Fridays when the weekenders arrive. To the non-pilot golfer considering a home at Mountain Air, the random stoppage in play and distractions of airplane engines are worth considering. For pilots, the community is about as close to heaven as they can get, and fully 20 percent of Mountain Air’s residents are experienced in a cockpit.

Mountain Air’s charms lie in such idiosyncrasies. The brainchild of two local families whose interest was in preserving and sharing much of Slickrock Mountain’s environment, the community retains a naturalist –- titled director of natural resources — who guides members and their children on nature walks up and down the wooded mountainside. Despite the construction of homes in the last decade, the mountain is still largely undisturbed and a haven for wild turkeys, black bears, mountain lions and other wildlife.

The community also retains an outpost specialist (translated as retailer of outdoor gear), a controlled access coordinator (read security manager), head organic gardener and executive chef (who no doubt work closely together). Mitchell Banks, from one of the families that developed Mountain Air, retains the title president and director of the mountain experience. Okay, whatever.

The design of the golf course, the placement of homes and the clubhouse at Mountain Air all are designed to maximize the incredible views across the Blue Ridge Mountains. The rustic, open-air dining facility looks out across Western North Carolina to Tennessee 20 miles away. The dining area, as well as the more formal clubhouse next door, hangs over the side of the hill overlooking the airstrip. How often can you chomp on a burger, sip a beer and watch a plane land just below? Pretty cool.

The space gobbled up by the landing strip, which can accommodate only small planes, has forced one significant compromise; the practice range for the golf course is a good mile away from the clubhouse and first tee, requiring either a short car ride or an ambitious cart ride. The tees at the range are elevated, but about 20 yards out and below is the metal roof of the combination equipment shed and indoor driving bays for use in inclement weather; top your ball off the practice tee, and you won’t be the only one who notices when it clangs off the roof.

The golf course’s winding, twisting layout spurs a lot of discussion in the Asheville area. Either people love it for its views, its dramatic shots from five-story-high tees, its generous fairways and the distance assist you get on drives in the thinner air; or they hate it for the visual interruption of the airstrip and what some describe as a “tricked-up” routing. This is not by any means a classic golf course, to be sure, but it is typically in excellent condition and memorable not only for the airstrip –- and the potential for a hooked drive rolling 800 yards down the runway –- but also for the few holes that seem from another planet. I hit my 160-yard club, a six iron, on the severely downhill 225-yard par three 10th hole, probably the only long par 3 east of the Rocky Mountains where that is possible. It will be interesting to see what tricks designer Pool has in store for the nine holes the owners have asked him to add by next spring.

The 1,300-acre Mountain Air is almost entirely a second-home community, and real estate prices, though beginning in the mid-$200s for single bedroom condos, are at the high-end of other mountain communities in western North Carolina. Its residents include a high percentage of current and former CEOS, as well as the well-pensioned pilots. Director of Sales Ken Maxwell is especially excited about a small new neighborhood called Spring Rock which will feature just six homes, all 4 bedroom, 3 ½ baths and about 3,400 square feet. They will look out over the new nine-hole course and to the western mountains beyond. Prices for Spring Rock will range from about $1.5 to $1.75 million. With not quite two thirds of Mountain Air’s properties sold to date, there are still plenty of home sites available at prices appropriate to their size and views.

Only 10 percent of Mountain Air’s members live in the community year round, although the golf course, clubhouse, nature center and other activities remain open. It is cold at the summit during the winter months, although the thermometer reaches into the 50s occasionally. The community maintains its own road crew and road-clearing equipment and, according to Maxwell, Mountain Air’s roads are cleaned before the county’s are. Although Mountain Air’s warm, rustic clubhouse will typically close by 2 p.m. during the winter months, it will remain open for dinner if just one of the 30 or so intrepid couples who stick around for the winter calls for a dinner reservation.

Mountain Air is not for people looking for a true year-round community, although the managers of the property make accommodations for winter residents. Those who want to be within, say, 30 minutes of a city, may also feel a little isolated at Mountain Air. Although the front gate of the community is just a half hour from Asheville, those living in the loftiest regions of Mountain Air can count on another 10 minutes drive up the mountain. But for a strong sense of privacy, a load-up of amenities, amazing mountain views from home and golf course and the convenience for resident pilots to fly-in for the weekend, Mountain Air is the high life.

Larry Gavrich is the founder of HomeOnTheCourse LLC, an advisory service for people considering purchase of real estate in a golf community or membership in a private club; and the editor of the online GolfCommunityReviews.com, where he provides objective, unbiased reviews of golf courses and communities and observations about golf and real estate.

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