Historic golf course threatened by development — unhappy neighbors want answers

It’s a long way from reality, but sooner or later, one of Pierce County’s lesser-known landmarks will give way to the inevitable bulldozer.

The site in question is the Brookdale Golf Club, a small but venerable public course built in 1931, tucked away in the suburbs of Parkland. Owner Chris Jones hasn’t sold the 146-acre course yet, but a deal is in the works. Puyallup developers Azure Green have filed permit applications that envision 388 homes on the site.

Those plans haven’t been approved; the application was filed in September, and county planners say plenty of analysis has to be completed before standard public hearings can take place. County officials canceled a planned Jan. 10 public meeting to discuss the project.

“We’ve just started our initial review of it,” said Melanie Halsan, assistant director of Pierce County’s planning and public works division. “We’re going to be doing a lot of stuff to look at what’s happening on the site. We need to get all of our studies completed before we get it out to the public. We just don’t have enough information yet to present it.”

The course has a long history. Merry Anderson, one-time state women’s champion, played there in the 1960s, as did Puyallup’s Ryan Moore in more recent times.

The site is a landmark for another reason: It’s part of a designated heritage corridor that dates to the mid-19th century. Settlers traveling along the Oregon Trail shifted from the traditional path along the Columbia to a route through Naches Pass, following a path used by Native Americans.

The route eventually reached South Hill, Parkland and the Mahon Ranch on Clover Creek, where the course now stands. Former Tacoma mayor Karen Vialle is a descendant of the Mahon family.

The prospect of development isn’t new. In 2007, residents feared a similar development proposal that never materialized. At the time, according to county records, residents and the course owners submitted the Brookdale site as a candidate for preservation in the county’s conservation futures program.

The idea would have required county money to purchase the site, coupled with a $1.5 million contribution from the property owner. Had the plan been approved, the golf course would have turned into a publicly owned facility, but the idea fizzled.

A decade later, the housing development idea is back. Naturally, neighbors of the course like living next to it, and they’re not pleased about the prospect of closure.

“If we lose it, it’s going to be a blow for this whole area, I think,” said resident Paul Chamberlin, 74, who lives along the course and plays there three times per week. “We don’t like it. Traffic will be increased oh, tenfold — it’s going to be so much noisier.”

After the county canceled the Jan. 10 meeting, alert community members scheduled one of their own the following day, organized by local activist Jesus Paez. Last Thursday, residents poured into a classroom at Elmhurst Elementary School to learn more about the proposed development.

“The county is just basically making these unincorporated communities into cities, forcing those developments without considering, do we have enough roads to basically serve this many people,” Paez said before the meeting. “If you go to Parkland, we don’t even have sidewalks.”

Attendees at the meeting skewed older, and muttered among themselves before discussion began.

“The off-leash dog park goes right down the middle,” one man said, pointing to posters of site plans brought by developer Paul Green and his colleagues from Azure Green.

“You’re already backed up on Golden Given (Road) every night on the way home,” another man said, to knowing nods.

As Green spoke, residents peppered him with questions: what about traffic? What about sewers? And traffic?

“We’re doing a traffic study that tells us what we’re supposed to do there,” Green replied, saying the study would be submitted to county planners in the coming weeks.

County Councilman Rick Talbert attended the meeting and listened as residents aired their concerns about the development and its impacts. He cautioned that final decisions haven’t been made, and residents will have more formal opportunities to comment on the project.

“It’ll go through the public process,” he said. “As you can imagine, it’s very early. Ultimately, a hearing examiner determines whether it it fits into the county code.”

This story was originally published January 13, 2018 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Historic golf course threatened by development — unhappy neighbors want answers."