PORT ANGELES — Disc golf at Robin Hill Farm County Park appears headed for the sand trap, a couple of years after the proposal kicked up a storm from equestrians and other park users.
Clallam County lawmakers on Monday said they will remove disc golf as an allowed use at Robin Hill by resolution next Tuesday.
That’s not to say that disc golf won’t find a home at the scenic park between Port Angeles and Sequim.
It would simply require a public participation process at the Clallam County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board level before the commissioners would decide whether or not to reinstate it in the Parks and Recreation Master Plan.
“I don’t think anybody here is anti disc golf per se,” said Commissioner Mike Chapman, noting that disc golfers have a dedicated course at Lincoln Park in Port Angeles.
“If the parks board wanted to look at disc golf, they could have a broader discussion and bring it back and start over,” he said. “To me, the cleanest is to just remove this from the park plan.”
Disc golf — also known as Frisbee golf — has been the center of controversy at the 195-acre Robin Hill Farm Park since a 20-acre, 18-hole course was added to the county’s parks plan in 2008.
Opponents — mostly from horseback riders who use the sprawling park’s trails — said the proposal by Michael McAleer of Sequim received a rubber stamp from parks staff and parks board members.
The critics presented petitions bearing more than 1,000 signatures to the county, urging that the plan be scrapped.
“Right now, disc golf as it exists, is tied to Robin Hill,” said John Benham, who sparked Monday’s debate by drafting a letter last month that asked the commissioners to consider the removal of disc golf at Robin Hill from the parks plan.
“If something’s not done, if it’s not removed, then we’re going to confront this again.”
Sharron Fogel, chairwoman of Friends of Robin Hill, submitted letters to the parks board and commissioners this month opposing disc golf at Robin Hill Farm Park.
“Friends of Robin Hill worked diligently to see that disc golf did not happen in a park where passive activity prevails,” Fogel wrote in a Jan. 5 letter to the parks board.
About two dozen disc golf opponents voiced their concerns at a work session in September 2008.
They said the park belonged to hikers, dog walkers cyclists and horse riders.
The commissioners had yet to revisit the issue.
“There’s been so much public passion about this on both sides,” County Administrator Jim Jones said.
“Knowing the current board and the discussions that we’ve had, I don’t think it hurts anything to just take it out [of the parks plan].
“It eases that one last bone of contention that people might have that some future board might try to do something different.”
Disc golf aficionados have said they would pay the estimated $40,000 cost of building the course.
The design must pass a State Environmental Policy Act checklist and receive a conditional use permit from the county.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
