Meridian golf course will finally get improvements it needs — on the public’s dime
In February 2019, the owner of the Lakeview Golf Club, Erik Oaas, appeared before the Meridian City Council with a plea: Help us save our golf club.
The city owns the land under the golf course, located south of Ustick Road between Black Cat and Ten Mile roads, and leases it to Oaas for $6,000 a year. Oaas hoped he and the city would enter into a complicated land-swap deal that would eventually allow him to build townhouses on the course. Oaas would then sell those townhouses and use the proceeds to help pay for a new irrigation system, which he said was desperately needed.
But after more than a year of negotiations, Oaas has reached a tentative deal to sell the Lakeview Golf Club and all its assets — including the clubhouse, maintenance equipment and liquor license — to the West Ada Recreation District. That would end his hopes of building townhouses there.
“There’s been some significant pushback from elected officials and some from the community to use public dollars on an asset managed by a private, for-profit entity,” said Shaun Wardle, the district’s board chairman, in explaining the reversal of plans to the City Council on Aug. 4.
The West Ada Recreation District was formed in 1971 to build and manage the community pool next to Storey Park in Meridian. The district’s boundaries are, roughly, McDermott Road to the west, Lake Hazel Road to the south, the Boise River to the north and Cloverdale Road to the east.
Once it buys the course, the district will turn over management of the course to the city of Meridian’s Parks and Recreation department. It plans to close on the property Oct. 8, with the city taking over management on Oct. 9.
The district agreed to spend $60,000 on a master plan that will look at necessary updates to the course, including an audit of its irrigation system.
Wardle said he hopes the recreation district will transfer the golf course assets — as well as the pool — to the city of Meridian in the next three years. The Parks Department would then manage the pool, too.
The West Ada Recreation District should “get out of the taxing business,” he said. Currently, the taxes paid to the district make up less than 1% of a property taxpayer’s annual bill.
Mayor Robert Simison said he supported the move to assume management of the course and, eventually, all of the district’s assets.
Bringing both the swimming pool and the golf course under the city will “allow for greater community understanding, consolidation of operations, and allow for the long-term upkeep and viability of both of these important assets,” he said in a statement.
During the Aug. 4 meeting, Simison also said income from the golf course would help offset the cost of public services that don’t raise as much revenue, such as parks and the swimming pool.
“We currently are in the business of things that don’t make money,” he said.
In a posted message to Meridian residents, Simison said the city will seek public participation as it develops a plan for the golf course’s future.
“We know there has been a lot of buzz, both on and off the golf course, about what this transition will look like and how it will impact customers,” he wrote. “Our Parks and Recreation Department is taking an active role to minimize the immediate impact to existing services while planning for the future of the course.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
