PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend City Council has approved moving ahead with a plan for the future of the Port Townsend Golf Course — one that will not include golf.
It voted unanimously for Mayor David Faber’s proposal to develop a plan for the city-owned property based on the priorities of the council that would end the site’s use as a municipal course.
In doing so, the council took a pass on two recommendations submitted by a stakeholder group that had been working since September 2022 on exploring alternative uses for the course. (Council member Aislinn Diamanti participated in the meeting virtually but was not available for the vote.)
“This is 58 acres in the heart of the city should be considered to be used for the most good for the most people,” Faber said. “If this land was empty, there’s no way we would consider putting a golf course there. It’s a rough thing to say.”
A proposal to the council put forward by council member Ben Thomas that would have included the golf course did not pass.
Recommendations
The stakeholder group developed its recommendations through a public engagement process that included focus groups, in-person and virtual open houses, online surveys and questionnaires and outreach to groups and organizations throughout the city.
Although tasked with developing one alternative use plan for the council’s consideration, the stakeholders could not come to a consensus and submitted two: a hybrid plan with a reconfigured nine-hole course and driving range that incorporated a dog park, a system of trails, a community garden, expansion of native prairie and housing; and a central park plan which would replace the nine-hole course with disc and mini golf and repurpose the rest of the property for such non-golf uses as pedestrian and bike trains and event spaces like an amphitheater.
While acknowledging elements of the hybrid option had merit, council members ultimately rejected both plans as unsatisfactory.
“I’m not happy with any of the options because they don’t solve the problems we need to solve,” said council member Libby Urner Wennstrom.
Deputy Mayor Amy Howard agreed.
“We have the opportunity to get this right, and this won’t get it right,” Howard said.
Council members cited costs related to operating the course, which has been managed by Gabriel Tonan Golf Shop since 2013, as an area of concern not addressed in the stakeholder group plans.
The city has said the course needs an estimated $1.2 million in capital improvements and costs it between $50,000 and $70,000 a year to provide water.
“The criteria that stands out to me is financial sustainability and the current operation doesn’t meet that criteria, and the central park and hybrid options rely on grants,” council member Owen Rowe said.
The relatively small number of people who played on the course did not represent the best use of publicly owned land, Wennstrom said.
“My impression, right now, the golf course is being used by a few hundred individuals and the city is subsidizing a private business for those individuals as a private club,” Wennstrom said. “As a steward of that property, I have some concerns about that.”
The overwhelming majority of the 35 people who spoke in the standing-room-only chambers and the five who made their comments virtually online favored keeping the property as a golf course in some capacity.
Established in 1904 as a private course and opened as a public course in 1927, Port Townsend Golf Course is a part of the history of a town that prides itself on its history, speakers said.
John Anderson, who moved to Port Townsend three years ago, said he had been golfing for 68 of his 77 years and had grown to appreciate the course.
“We have a gem of a golf course here. It’s old and that’s both a good thing and a bad thing,” Anderson said.
A number of people spoke in favor of a golf plan designed by Robert Horner of Pi R Squared Studio in Port Townsend that was not considered in the public engagement process.
“I’m not a golfer, but we need to preserve this piece of Port Townsend history,” longtime resident Kathy Beattie said. “The current two proposals are not economical nor do they honor the history of this piece of property. Robert Horner’s design honors history and it has practical solutions.”
After almost two hours of public comment and before the council began is discussion, Faber said, “It’s also important to listen, not just to the loudest voices in the room, but to consider the quieter voices.
“As multiple people have noted, the people who aren’t here and also the silent voices that people have had no time to even begin to participate in this process.”
Chris Jones of Groundswell Landscape Architecture, who had been guiding the stakeholder group through the 11-month public engagement project, asked council members for the priorities that they want to see accommodated in their plan.
Among them were amenities for children and families, financial viability, a dog park, public access, connectivity to different communities and a future for affordable housing.
Carrie Hite, director of Parks & Recreation Strategy, said she would work to reassemble the stakeholder group and hopefully come up with a plan that incorporates the council’s priorities. That plan would then be presented to the council to vote on.
City council members were not obliged to go with the stakeholder group’s recommendations, and in approving Faber’s proposal, set a trajectory for a Port Townsend without a golf course.
But the plan would somehow incorporate “a nod to golf and that recognizes that we need to move on,” Faber said.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
