Business Park Plan Approved For Hayden California Developer Alan Golub Purchased 237 Acres Of Farmland For The Project

The Hayden City Council gave a green light Tuesday to developers who want to build a business park on the north side of the city.

“I’d like to see the entire area developed in this way. Keep it (industrial growth) concentrated,” said John Pointner, a nearby landowner.

California businessman Alan Golub has bought 237 acres of farmland southwest of the intersection of U.S. Highway 95 and Lancaster Road. He wants to turn the site, named “New Frontiers,” into a blend of retail stores, offices and light manufacturing plants.

“We want to set something up that will be a beautiful, park-like setting, like a campus,” Golub said in a phone interview.

The land, which is within the Hayden city limits, is zoned for light industrial use.

The council approved a preliminary plat for the northern half of the site. The plat serves as a blueprint for dividing up the land into 48 lots of about 2 acres each.

Golub said his eight-employee company, Electronic Packaging Associates, Inc., will be the park’s first tenant. He said he hopes to begin construction on a 7,000-square-foot plant there this spring. The company, based in Canoga Park, Calif., builds tools for making computer chips.

Full development of the park will take 10 to 15 years, Golub predicts.

The site is adjacent to the fly-over zone for the Coeur d’Alene Airport.

Pointner and two other nearby landowners testified in favor of the project, all saying they have similar plans for their land. Relatives of a farm family north of Lancaster said they’re worried the project would increase traffic on the road. Smetana said he’d meet with them.

Tuesday’s unanimous vote by the council was only the start. The developers must still get city approval for a final plat and site plans for each building.

“It’s not going to be an explosion,” Smetana said. “The city’s got a lot of opportunity to control this, and that’s a good thing.”