PORT TOWNSEND — The public launch of a community engagement process to help determine the future of the Port Townsend Golf Course began with an open house at Mountain View Commons where attendees could talk with city staff and the landscape design team, fill out comment cards and learn about the project.
Envisioning the Port Townsend Golf Course grew out of community feedback from the 2020 PROS (Parks, Recreation and Open Space) Plan, which indicated an openness to considering alternative uses for the 58-acre, nine-hole course.
The process also will include exploring alternative and complementary uses for Mountain View Commons, which is adjacent to the golf course. (The replacement of the Mountain View pool with a health and wellness center that includes a natatorium is part of a separate project, Healthier Together.)
Carrie Hite, who was hired by the city in February to fill the newly created position of Parks and Recreation Strategy Director, said Tuesday’s open house was intended to make a connection with the community to keep it informed and engaged with the development of new concepts for the golf course.
“The fact is, the community does want to talk about it, so we’re talking about it,” Hite said. “We have a golf club in town that would like to see it maintained as a golf course and the fact is we do need some capital improvements on the course.
“The city council will come to a decision in May or June and they’re going to say, ‘Do we invest or do we not invest in golf, and if we invest, do we get our money back eventually, will there be some return?’”
A study conducted by the National Golf Foundation in 2018 determined that the course and its facilities would need between $935,000 and $1.2 million in upgrades — including renovating the club house, purchase of new maintenance equipment and course repairs — for it to be financially viable.
Phase I of the Port Townsend Golf Course and Mountain View Commons Concept Planning Effort started in September when a group of 20 community stakeholders began meeting and sharing ideas with the planning team, which includes, among others, landscape architects and planners Groundswell, golf course consultant David Hein and the civil engineering firm of Zenovic & Associates.
Open houses for the public to view and offer feedback on the planning concepts will be held during each of the next three phases that start in November and end with the presentation to the city council of a preferred plan in spring 2023.
“If they decide to repurpose the course and create something else, then the landscape architect team within its scope of work will do an implementation plan so we can sort of gradually redevelop it over a course of years that fits within the budget,” Hite said.
The next Envision Port Townsend Golf Course stakeholder meetings on Nov. 15 and Nov. 29 are open to the public in hybrid format: in person at city county chambers from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and via the internet.
There is no budget yet for the project, however.
“There have been some conversations at the stakeholder meetings that they want to figure out what makes sense [first], that when they get to that point where they’re going to start to cross things out and something is too expensive, then they would just plan it for a longer period of time” to implement it, Hite said.
The Port Townsend Golf Course was established as a private course in 1904, converted to a public course administered by Jefferson County in 1927 and is now owned by the city and managed under a private contract with Tonan Golf Shops. A deed restricts its use to municipal purposes. The course is used by the Port Townsend High School golf team, among other community groups.
Information about Envision Port Townsend Golf Course and Mountain View Commons can be found at tinyurl.com/3htsy6sw.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
