Westport Golf Links about to enter EIS phase

Westport Golf Links, the David McLay Kidd seaside links-design currently being planned in partnership with the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) in Westport, will soon enter the 45-day public comment period in response to the project’s Environmental Impact Study.

The $30 million project (to be paid for by private investors), five-plus years in the making, is projected to bring recreation, economic, environmental and health/safety benefits to Washington’s picturesque Pacific Coastline. Westport Golf Links investors and the WSPRC have been working together on plans to enhance and improve the 600-plus acre Westport Light State Park by adding the new public golf course to approximately 200 acres of the State Park, on land that is currently serving no public recreational benefit. The public golf course aligns with the WSPRC strategic plan, meeting most of the 18 goals including providing additional outdoor recreation, exercise and contributing to statewide tourism and local economic development.

Recreational opportunities will expand for the local Westport community as well as visitors to the area, including:

In addition to a new public golf course, improvements will be made to Westport Light State Park with new public trails, a new surf shack food and beverage concession area, new picnic tables and fire pits, as well as additional parking for State Park visitors (separate from the golf course).

The current Dune Trail alignment will remain and will be widened by two feet to provide more room for pedestrians and bicycles. The wider trail will also provide better access for first responders to the beach.

Westport Golf Links will construct over two miles of new, formal interior park trails and provide multiple safe beach access points to increase public access to Westport Light State Park.

Westport Golf Links will provide an opportunity to introduce the game of golf to new golfers with the course’s driving range and practice facilities available to the public and lessons from golf professionals.

Similar to other links-style golf courses around the world, Westport Golf Links will be a walker-friendly golf course with no designated or formal motorized cart paths. Carts will be available for golfers with disabilities.

Economic benefits for the local community and state of Washington include:

Westport Golf Links’ year-round golf and hospitality operations will bring 300-plus jobs to the region.

The new golf and hospitality property will also pay state and local taxes, boosting funding for local police and fire departments, education and health services, road maintenance, and other programs and projects that benefit the community at large.

In addition, Westport Golf Links will offer discounted green fees to city and county residents, making a world-class golf experience more accessible.

In an April 2024 United States Golf Association (USGA) report detailing the environmental benefits of golf courses it was noted that “Golf courses are often portrayed as an environmental detriment used only by a select group of wealthy people, but the facts tell a different story. Extensive research has identified numerous environmental benefits of golf courses, along with the recreational and economic value they bring to our communities.”

According to the USGA’s report, environmental benefits include:

Turfgrass and other vegetation on a golf course help cool highly developed areas during hot weather.

Golf courses provide important habitats for native wildlife and vegetation and can help support threatened species.

Golf courses can help manage storm water runoff, aiding in flood prevention. They also recharge groundwater supplies and filter surface runoff.

The vegetation on golf courses sequesters atmospheric carbon and helps improve air quality, especially in urban areas.

The environmental benefits will be far reaching, including:

Westport Golf Links will operate under federal, state and local environmental standards, and use buffer zones to help reduce or eliminate any runoff from the golf course.

Westport Golf Links plans to use a native fescue turfgrass. The benefits of this grass include lower water usage than other cool-season grass varieties and native fescue requires less chemical inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides.

Once operational, the course plans to use treated effluent water from the city’s wastewater treatment plant to irrigate the golf course – eliminating discharge directly into the bay, a benefit to the local shellfish industry.

A Rare and High-Quality Coastal Plant Community Restoration Program will be established and maintained over 20 to 24 acres of upland and wetland plant communities. The goal is to increase the diversity of rare and uncommon plants to support ecological resiliency within the State Park.

Together with the WSPRC, Westport Golf Links plans to implement a Park-wide Invasives and Noxious Weeds Control Program to eradicate and control Scotch Broom, Canadian thistle, knotweed, gorse and other invasives that threaten coastal native plant communities. It is expected that over 300 acres of the Westport Peninsula will be actively managed by the Westport Golf Links operations crew which will cover approximately 50 percent of the State Park area.

An area approximately 50 acres in size will be re-graded to create a mosaic of emergent and shrub wetland communities which are less common and ones that support a high diversity of plant and wildlife species.

236 acres of mature forested wetland will be monitored and maintained to prevent invasion by invasive species.

This project results in restoration and enhancement of over 90 acres of unique and rare saltmarsh habitats within the already high-value conservation area of the Lower Elk River Estuary of South Bay Grays Harbor. This off-site restoration project will support ESA listed salmon and trout species, marbled murrelet, snowy plover, as well as Bald eagle and as many as 42 species of marine and freshwater shorebirds and waterfowl, protected under the federal Migratory Bird Act.

In addition to the aforementioned recreation, economic and environmental benefits, Westport Golf Links will also provide health and safety benefits for the Westport and Grays Harbor communities.

Health and safety benefits

Westport Golf Links’ active and long-term Invasive Species Management Program, vegetation management practices, managed turf areas, and on-site wetland mitigation activities which will create, restore, expand, or preserve open, wetter habitats will result in an overall reduced fire risk within the City of Westport and its surrounding communities. Brush fires pose a significant risk along the Washington coastline with the continued spread and establishment of Scotch broom, gorse, and European beachgrass.

The forested interior of Westport Light State Park is currently undeveloped, thickly vegetated, and is a transient and drug-use refuge opportunity within the City of Westport that is currently unaddressed. Lack of visibility and patrol access by State Park managers are contributing factors to this public health and safety issue. Under the proposed Westport Golf Links a new formal interior trail system will be created, meaning greater access and monitoring of the State Park’s interior by State Park and Westport Golf Links’ staff, faster identification of public safety and fire risk issues, and a deterrent to permanent transient encampments.

Demand for public golf in Washington state is at an all-time high. In fact, a recently released study by the National Golf Foundation (NGF) revealed the number of golf rounds played in the state of Washington in 2023 increased by 6.1% over 2022 to a record 8.06 million rounds. Participation among female golfers jumped 8.4%, an increase of 14,000 rounds, and by 3.5% among junior golfers, an increase of 3,000 rounds.

According to the NGF study, Washington has 695,000 golfers, ranking it 14th nationally for total number of golfers. Of Washington’s 274 golf courses, 80% are open to public play, including daily-fee, resort and municipal golf courses, 5% higher than the national average. With 3,202 golfers per public golf course, only five states have a higher average number of golfers per public course than Washington, indicating that demand surpasses supply.

Opposition

Two environmental groups are suing Washington state to stop the development of the 120-plus acre golf course project on coastal state park land in Westport.

Friends of Grays Harbor and Grays Harbor Audubon Society filed the complaint in Thurston County Superior Court on March 29, alleging the golf course developers and Washington State Parks Commission are ignoring past agreements that limit wetland development at the site.

Arthur Grunbaum, president of Friends of Grays Harbor, said in a statement that the proposed golf course would “destroy one of the last remaining intact large-scale interdunal wetlands” in Washington, while also converting public land to private use.

If the project is built, the environmental groups say it would interrupt rare habitat for a range of birds and wildlife, hurt water quality through pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer pollution, and limit equitable access to the beach.

The lawsuit hinges on legal agreements made by the previous owners of the acreage, who had tried to build a golf course on it about two decades ago.

In the early 2000s, Mox Chehalis LLC had plans to develop land owned by the Port of Grays Harbor into a golf resort.

The plans, which included a hotel and convention center, were met with resistance from Friends of Grays Harbor and other environmentalists, triggering a legal battle that dragged on for about six years.

In 2007, Friends of Grays Harbor and Mox Chehalis LLC signed a settlement agreement that limited the ability of the current and future owners to fill wetlands on the property for golf course development.

Further inspection of the site by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found that work carried out by Mox Chehalis included filling wetlands in violation of the Clean Water Act.

To avoid future violations of the federal law, the Army Corps and Mox Chehalis formed a land covenant that, among other limitations, prohibited filling wetlands, clearing vegetation, changing the topography, and constructing buildings on about 114 acres of the land.

Washington purchased the property from Mox Chehalis and J.D. Financial Corp, which shared common ownership, in 2015 using a grant from the State Recreation and Conservation Office.

The environmental groups now suing to halt the project argue the state is subject to the restrictions on development in the settlement agreement and land covenant.

And they say that Washington law prohibits the state from converting the property into a golf course because of how it was acquired with a Recreation and Conservation Office grant.

Grunbaum said the state’s due diligence in looking into the agreements was “woefully inadequate.”

Washington State Parks said it is aware of the litigation and reviewing it, but declined to comment further.

Westport Golf, Inc., the company seeking to build and operate the golf course, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to the developer and the state parks department, the lawsuit names the city of Westport and J.D. Financial Corp and Mox Chehalis LLC as defendants.

— Washington State Standard contributed to this report.