Golf Course Idea May Dry Up Cost Of Water A Hazard In 200-Acre Gift To County
A Seattle couple wants to give Spokane County 200 acres to build an 18-hole golf course in northern Spokane County.
Lack of water may kill the deal.
The land is part of about 500 acres that was passed down through five generations to Beverly Throndson and her husband, Roy. No one lives on the former wheat farm, said Beverly Throndson, who was raised in Spokane - though not on the farm - and worked in the 1950s for the city Parks Department.
The land is “a gift to us from God,” said Beverly Throndson. “We’d like to give part of it back.”
The sweeping view of Mount Spokane and surrounding hills “is absolutely breathtaking up there,” said Fran Boxer, the county’s assistant chief administrative officer. “It would make a fantastic golf course.”
The land is about two miles west of Wandermere Golf Course and two miles north of the Spokane Country Club. Those courses are privately owned; there are no county courses north of the city limits.
Wells on farms near the Throndsons’ land are pumping less water every year, Boxer said. Laying 16-inch pipes from the nearest Whitworth Water District water main to the course would cost about $500,000, said county parks planner Steve Horobiowski.
The water shortage “could be insurmountable,” said Boxer.
Horobiowski and Boxer plan to ask county commissioners today whether they should put any more effort into the proposal.
“Even if we receive the land, it would probably sit for years before we could do anything,” she said.
Developers sometimes offer land for public golf courses, hoping the fairways and greens will increase the value of surrounding land. At Liberty Lake, construction of the MeadowWood Golf Course preceded the construction of hundreds of houses that generally become more costly the closer they are to the course.
The state’s Growth Management Act limits development on the Throndsons’ land. Commissioner John Roskelley, who has discussed the proposal with the Throndsons, said the county may allow the family to cluster 20 houses around the 200-acre course. The family could put one house on every 10 acres of the remaining land.
Throndson, whose husband soon will retire as a bank president, insisted she isn’t interested in developing the land, although her grown daughter would like to live there.
“We want to keep it in the family, and we want to keep it intact as much as possible,” she said.
The land has been in the conservation reserve program for 10 years, Throndson said. The family’s agreement to keep the land idle in exchange for federal payments recently expired.
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