The owners of an Intercourse publishing company Monday unveiled a $45 million development plan designed to upgrade accommodations for the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the small village each year.

Merle and Phyllis Good, owners of Good Enterprises Ltd., which includes a publishing company, showed Leacock Township supervisors architectural sketches of an ambitious project they call Village Green. It would be built on 26.6 acres adjacent to its publishing business, Good Books, in the 3500 block of Old Philadelphia Pike.

The project would include two hotels, a large family restaurant, a market building, a food court, a welcome center and shops and galleries. Plans call for luxury apartments on the upper floors of some of the buildings.

The buildings would surround a quadrangle.

"We've always dreamed of creating a village center off the main highway (Route 340), where local persons and visitors would both like to gather," Phyllis Good said.

The entire project would take three to seven years to complete and would be built in phases with several partners.

Merle Good said the plans will be submitted this week to the Lancaster County Planning Commission. He said it will likely take about a year to get all the necessary approvals.

If all goes smoothly, he believes ground could be broken about this time next year.

The supervisors generally reacted favorably to the project at Monday's meeting.

Frank Howe, chairman of the supervisors, said the Village Green project "certainly fits within the parameters … of the long-range plan" for the area.

Howe said the developers will have to address the traffic congestion that already exists along that stretch of Route 340.

If it goes forward, the project would become an extension of the "Village Overlay Zone," which calls for buildings to be built close to the sidewalks with parking along the sides and behind the main buildings.

"We want the Village Green area to have the ambiance of a village center," Phyllis Good said. "To have that sense of place requires careful coordination of architectural features and the manner in which the buildings face the green and each other. We're delighted with the plans our team has developed."

The Goods bought the property 20 years ago. Merle Good said it is the last large, undeveloped lot in Intercourse that is commercially zoned.

The property is behind their businesses on Route 340, in the heart of Intercourse directly across the street from Kitchen Kettle.

The couple's company, Good Enterprises Inc., plans to expand Garden Spot Lane west into a proposed street, Village Green Avenue, which would go through the village, run south from Route 340 and then wind east to Center Avenue.

The Goods said they have partners, whom they declined to name, lined up to finance and build a 200-room hotel, which would feature a water park for guests, the restaurant and other components of the plan.

"Our main business is publishing," Merle Good said. "That will still be our main business."

Phyllis Good said, "We happened to buy this land because it adjoined our properties; we didn't intend to be developers, and we still don't."

The Goods, who also own The Old Country Store and The People's Place Quilt Museum in Intercourse, have not always enjoyed business success, having declared bankruptcy in 1996.

However, they were able to turn things around and brought their company out of bankruptcy in 2004.

As well as repaying their creditors what they were owed, the Goods rewarded them with bonus payments.

The Goods have done well with their publishing business, which was what fueled their climb out of bankruptcy.

Phyllis Good's eight cookbooks in the "Fix-It and Forget-It" series have sold a combined 8.5 million copies, helping the publishing business grow 1,000 percent between 2002 and 2003, the Goods said.

One of their plans for the Village Green project is the construction of "The Fix-It and Forget-It Welcome Center," which would likely feature a "serious kitchen shop," with videos about the success of the cookbooks, food demonstrations, cooking classes, a café, a large kitchen and food store.

"It's a project we've been dreaming of for years," Phyllis Good said.

Plans also call for a second 190-room hotel on the ridge just south of the Village Green, a number of extended-stay cottages and one or two specialty restaurants.

"There's very little lodging in this area, comparatively," Merle Good said. "There are 7,000 or 8,000 rooms in the county and only 1 or 2 percent are in this area. But almost everyone who comes to Lancaster County wants to come to Intercourse."

The Goods hope to add more attractions in Intercourse, including a replica of an Amish farmhouse which would feature a film and exhibits about Amish life.

The Goods also are looking at a possible expansion of The Old Country Store and The People's Place Quilt Museum.

Joyce Horning, owner of Dutch Baskets, 3460 Old Philadelphia Pike in Intercourse, said the Goods' plan would be welcome if it brings more tourism to the village.

"But I would be concerned about traffic," Horning said. "There's always the traffic issues."

E-mail: pburns@lnpnews.com