Country club proposes expanding golf course to Boise River island, raising concerns
A Garden City country club is working with Idaho officials to potentially lease a state-managed island in the Boise River to expand its golf course, prompting concerns about water quality and public access from a local environmental group.
The River Club, formerly known as Plantation Country Club, has been in talks with the Idaho Department of Lands since at least January to expand to the island east of the Glenwood Bridge, according to correspondence obtained by the Idaho Statesman. According to David Lehman, a spokesman for the River Club, the country club hopes to connect three holes to the island, which is located south of West Plantation Lane and the existing country club property.
The current iteration of the proposal would include a tee box north of the river to a green on the island, a hole on the island and a tee box on the island to a green back on the main property.
Lehman said the proposal came about as a response to a planned Ada County Highway District road-widening project on State Street that would require the club to move at least one of its existing holes. (ACHD voted unanimously in April to put the project on hold indefinitely “in order to take advantage of previously acquired right-of-way which will eliminate costly impacts to the Plantation Country Club,” according to the project page on its website.)
“When they looked at the existing land and what they’d have to do to redesign the course, one of the things we looked at is potentially using the islands,” Lehman said in a phone interview Wednesday.
He also said records showed previous owners had looked at adding holes on the same island back in the 1970s and ‘80s.
“That sparked some of the interest in being able to look at that area just across the river as a potential area to construct those holes,” Lehman said.
The Department of Lands in August issued a land use permit for soil analysis in the area to Ecosystem Sciences, a Boise environmental planning firm that is working with Glass Creek LLC, which purchased the country club in 2018. Documents show the River Club invited stakeholders from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the Idaho Department of Water Resources, Garden City, Ada County and the Idaho Department of Lands to a group tour of the site in late October.
Despite that, Lehman and the Idaho Department of Lands said the proposal is in early stages.
“We have just started meeting with the agencies … to talk about what’s even feasible,” Lehman said. “So before we really put together a plan that we’re going to propose and ask for public comment, we want to make sure that we’re developing a plan that works from an environmental perspective and a playability perspective, as well.”
Department of Lands policy and communications chief Scott Philips told the Statesman in an email that the agency has not yet received a lease application from the River Club.
“The information IDL does have shows that the design is very preliminary and likely subject to change before permits are approved, if they are approved,” Phillips wrote. “Without an application having even been submitted to IDL, it’s premature for IDL to comment on the River Club’s proposal.”
Phillips also said any approval of a future lease application related to the island would be contingent on the issuance of a Stream Channel Alteration Permit from the Idaho Department of Water Resources, which he called “the primary state regulatory authority in this matter.” Phillips said several other agencies — presumably those that were involved in the site tour — would need to issue permits or approvals for the River Club’s proposal to move forward as planned.
“Part of that process would require a public hearing,” Phillips wrote. “This public involvement would likely be coordinated between IDWR, the Army Corps of Engineers, IDL, and other agencies and decision-makers.”
Idaho Conservation League raises concern about public involvement
One Idaho environmental group has criticized the Department of Lands’ lack of public disclosure on the project during its 11 months of communications with the River Club. The Idaho Conservation League criticized the proposal in a blog post on Tuesday, and external relations director Jonathan Oppenheimer told the Statesman in a phone interview on Wednesday that the lack of public input on the plan is concerning.
“It’s one thing to have some discussions with someone,” Oppenheimer said. “It seems to be another when there are eight to 10 agencies out on a field trip. When these discussions have been occurring since January and a land use permit was issued in August … there’s been a failure to include the public.”
The 17-acre parcel that the River Club has proposed leasing is public trust land, which is managed differently than the state endowment lands the Department of Lands also oversees. Where the department is constitutionally mandated to maximize revenue on endowment lands to fund education, it is instead tasked with managing public trust lands for “public benefit rather than for a specific beneficiary,” according to its website.
“At statehood, Idaho took title to the bed and banks of navigable waters below the ordinary high-water mark, including the Boise River,” Phillips said in his email.
Lehman said River Club owner Will Gustafson is interested in protecting public access to the area, which is north of the Garden City Greenbelt. On Wednesday morning, several anglers were fishing in the Boise River between the island and the north riverbank.
“The plan that (we’re) trying to come up with is one that will incorporate those golf holes but also would allow us to build a nature trail, potentially a spot to access the river for fishing and make improvements on the island,” Lehman told the Statesman.
Lehman noted that he came across “camps” while visiting the island this summer.
“It’s not a family recreation place right now,” he said. “It’s not someplace I would take my kids out right now to walk along the river. So the hope is by combining the development of that island with golf course holes and then adding into it access points from the Greenbelt that would allow people to get to the river and do it safely.”
Lehman said the river would remain accessible for anglers, though it’s not clear whether that would interfere with the planned cross-river holes. He said development for the proposed holes would be limited to 1 acre of the 17-acre lease area both to minimize impact on the island and to avoid building on parts of the parcel that regularly flood during high water.
Conservation group calls on Land Board to address golf course project
The likelihood of flooding and the River Club’s plans for bridges from the north riverbank to the island raised additional concerns from the Idaho Conservation League.
“Given regular flooding of the island, ICL is concerned that invasive work to stabilize the river bank would be inevitable, resulting in streambed disturbance, heavy equipment, and ‘emergency measures’ to protect the country club’s investment,” Oppenheimer wrote in his Tuesday post.
Lehman said the River Club would work to stabilize the shoreline and anchor a bridge further from the river in an effort to prevent erosion. He said the country club is already doing work on the riverbank to address existing erosion.
Oppenheimer also said “manicured” golf greens could potentially create runoff of fertilizers and other materials into the Boise River that could compromise its water quality.
The Idaho Conservation League has asked the Idaho Board of Land Commissioners, which includes Gov. Brad Little and Department of Lands Director Dustin Miller, to include an informational agenda item on the proposal during its Dec. 15 meeting.
