EXCL: @EricTrump has enlisted architects to convince authorities to allow the Trump Organisation build swaths of housing & luxury villas on nearly 200 acres of land next to @realDonaldTrump's Turnberry resort. My updated @scotonsunday story: scotsman.com/sport/golf/rev…
The plans by @EricTrump for a major expansion of @readldonaldtrump's Turnberry resort are at a tentative stage, but here's some thoughts and context surrounding what the Trump Organisation is planning, and why it's doing it. Thread follows ...
Neither @realdonaldtrump, @EricTrump or their staff have made these plans public, but they've been occupying the Trump Org for a while. Eric's been involved for a year, overseeing the zoning of land at Turnberry. Its architects, Covell Matthews, have been on board since January.
I found out about them via what's known as LDP2, a lengthy, detailed planning framework which will determine the land in South Ayrshire that can be developed, and the land that should be protected. Every local authority has a similar mechanism in place.
If you have insomnia troubles, looking through LDP2 documents is a fine solution. But delve into them, and you’ll soon realise it’s an important if unheralded process which decrees the shape and size of the communities we all live and work in.
Few people bother to learn about local development plans. Fewer still engage with then. But the Trump Organisation did, enlisting the Aberdeen-based architectural practice, Covell Matthews, which is also working on the Trump Estate housing plan in Aberdeenshire.
They are trying to convince South Ayrshire Council to allow two sites owned by the Trump Org to be freed up for development, including at least 87 houses and an undisclosed number of holiday villas.
The sites in question are vast, running to around 200 acres. Trump got them as part of the deal to buy Turnberry fours ago. It's mainly agricultural land, with a few outbuildings. Oh, and a disused WW2 runway from what was RAF Turnberry.
Here's a map of the proposed development area next to Turnberry, which gives you some sense of its scale. Thanks to @TimHopkinson from @TheScotsman's graphics hub for pulling this image together from documents I obtained. 
It's a beautiful part of Scotland, with panoramic views of the Aisla links at Turnberry and the Firth of Clyde. And I get that impression that, historically, that's very much how the local authority planning service have wanted it to remain.
They've been critical of the sites submitted by the Trump Organisation for inclusion in LDP2 and, the firm hopes, development, describing them variously as "insensitive," "extremely large," and having "unsubstantiated" benefits.
But crucially, a final decision has yet to be made on whether to include them in the finalised LDP2. I spoke with Ralph Porciani, Turnberry's general manager, on Friday. He told me he thinks the Trump Organisation will succeed, and that the council will "welcome" its plans.
Porciani told me that previous owners of Turnberry, including Starwood Hotels - its owners from ''98 to '08 - had considered trying to develop the land around Turnberry. He's right. They did. But they failed.
The vast majority of the land in question is classed as prime agricultural ground. In such a remote, rural setting, it's all that separates the communities of Turnberry and Maidens. The housing proposed by the Trump Organisation would change the boundaries.
But letter sent by Trump's architects also points out that the Turnberry expansion would bring in more jobs. Is that a material planning consideration? No. Is it significant in a fragile, rural economy such as South Ayrshire's? Undoubtedly.
Which segues nicely into an important issue whenever Trump's mentioned: the money. If approved, it'd pave the way for a significant spending drive by Trump at his flagship Scottish property. The costs would comfortably run into eight figures.
Which, in turn, raises the question of why Trump would wish to throw millions more at a resort that has consistently lost money (£33m and counting) under his stewardship.
Turnberry is heavily reliant on interest free loans from Trump - some £107m. There's a consensus that Trump's investments have immeasurably improved the resort's golf and hotel offering, but were you to describe it as a bottomless money pit, you wouldn't be wide of the mark.
Its latest annual losses of £3m represent an improvement, but given that spanned the hotel's first full year of trading post Trump refurbishment, it shows it still has some way to go to get out of the red.
Porciani told me his aim for this year was to 'break even." Last January, he told the Guardian he thought 2017 would bring in a profit. Turnberry has a habit of confounding expectations.
Now, it's notoriously difficult to make lots of money through golf courses, even when it comes to a resort with the prestige and history of Turnberry, a four-time Open host.
Is the housing and resort expansion being floated by @EricTrump a way of wresting Turnberry into the black. A source at the resort I spoke to certainly thinks so, describing it as a viable way to make the resort "sustainable."
Porciani said that's not the case, and that a strategy exists to turn Turnberry into a profitable venture, irrespective of the swaths of housing and luxury villas.
But for now, the Q is whether the housing and villas will be approved. The ball's in the court of South Ayrshire Council, which has enjoyed a positive relationship with the Trump Organisation to date. Given @realDonaldTrump's history with Scottish planners, It's one to watch.
