PORT TOWNSEND — The Envision Port Townsend Golf Course stakeholders are closer to finalizing the decision-making criteria that will guide the group over the next five months.
Members are weighing the many different and often-opposing interests it must consider in its role in helping determine the future of the 59-acre, nine-hole Port Townsend Municipal Golf Course.
The fine-tuning of criteria and preparations for the first of three open houses came at a virtual Tuesday stakeholder meeting.
Rethinking the best use for the golf course grew out of feedback from the Port Townsend 2020 Parks, Recreation and Open Space Functional Plan (PROS Plan) in which residents were asked about their priorities for recreational spending.
Rebecca Melvin, a landscape architect with Groundswell, presented the revised list of decision-making criteria.
The list led with inclusive and welcoming, followed by prioritizing environmental stewardship, benefiting community health and well-being, celebrating Port Townsend’s history and community and culture.
Carrie Hite, Port Townsend director of parks and recreation strategy, said that among the ideas for use of the golf course that members of the public suggested were keeping it as a golf course, returning the property to the Native American community, developing a system of trails and walking paths, creating a disc golf course and turning it into public housing.
Envision Port Townsend stakeholders representing municipal, service and nonprofit groups, as well as private citizens, will be available to answer questions at the open house set from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Jan. 11 at Fort Worden Commons, 210 Battery Way. Also available will be a team from Groundswell Landscape Architecture, the Seattle firm hired to facilitate planning and public outreach.
The schedule will be from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., display board session; 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., question-and-answer period; and 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., interactive session.
Olympic Peninsula YMCA will provide free childcare during the event.
Those unable to attend can participate in a virtual open house from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Jan. 12. To join, go to tinyurl.com/mw7ahb7m.
After the third open house next spring, the date of which has yet to be finalized, the stakeholders will decide on a plan for the golf course that includes project phasing and a cost estimate.
It will then present its recommendation to the City of Port Townsend for consideration.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
