The swimming pool is covered with a tarp and doesn’t look like it will open this summer.
On the east side of Richmond Highway in Mount Vernon, there is an old motel with some occupied rooms and some boarded up doors, a dilapidated swimming pool and beat up parking lot, with the future of this property in question.
There are property owners involved, a surrounding community with questions and now it’s become a legal matter with lawyers looking into it. Over the last seven years, plans were laid out for different uses on this 2.5 acre piece of land.
In 2016 the site was considered for a storage facility that "not only revitalizes the area but provides for services needed by the community" stated a Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Associations letter dated Feb 12, 2016 advising a developer to move forward with that plan.
Fast forward five years and it's come up again on the MVCCA agenda. Although no official offer was made, Evergreen Investment Company was interested in purchasing the property to include multi-family housing apartments for rent using the same footprint that is currently in use with the Brookside Motel.
On Dec. 7, 2021 the Board of Supervisors authorized the consideration of a Comprehensive Plan amendment for the Brookside Motel as housing at 5-8 dwelling units per acre with an option for a public park, and some concerns about the 100-year floodplain. Although this plan was hatched over 18 months ago, it still remains the current plan for the property, according to the county zoning office.
There are no dates attached to this plan so for now, the aging motel with a boarded-up door on one room, a stagnant pool and sprinkling of cars in the parking lot remains. Housekeeping staff was at work cleaning some of the rooms. Front office staff was not available.