Vancouver’s city limits continue to march outward, and no one disputes that the Club Green Meadows Golf Course and the homes around it will eventually become part of the fold.
But residents of the neighborhood — made up of homes on spacious lots around the golf course — say they’d like a bit more say in just how they join up.
The problem, they say, lies in how the privately-owned golf course will be zoned.
They fear the view from their half-million dollar homes, many overlooking those links, could drastically change someday.
The 90-acre golf course, it turns out, is zoned by Clark County as R1-6, or for high-density single homes on 6,000-square-foot lots.
When it’s brought into the city, the plan is to convert the course to the closest Vancouver zoning equivalent of R-9, or high-density homes on 5,000 square foot lots.
What: The City Council will hear public testimony on the zoning for the Club Green Meadows Golf Course and Athletic Club should it be annexed into Vancouver.
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 1, City Council Chambers, City Hall, 210 E. 13th St.
Those lot sizes don’t jibe with the surrounding area, where homes are on lots of 10,000 to 12,000 square feet, residents protested at Monday’s Vancouver City Council workshop.
“It’s a crime to put little cracker-box 5,000 square foot lots behind a million-dollar home,” said Green Meadows neighbor Ron Rasmussen. “All of us purchased our homes for country club restricted living.”
But their worry may be unfounded, Vancouver senior planner John Manley said.
He said there is currently no indication that Green Meadows’ owner, Joseph Grimm, is looking to get out of the golf buisness.
“The owner is not talking about (re)developing the property,” Manley said. “The only talk is about converting from county to city property and what that means.”
But neighbors are alarmed, because as of now, Grimm has also not agreed to what they want: Zoning that would either keep the golf course as an open space forever or ensure that any new homes would be built on lot sizes equal to theirs.
Manley said when the city annexes property, it is legally bound to convert zoning as directly as possible.
That means without Grimm’s permission, planners can’t choose any other zoning for Green Meadows besides R-9.
“The owner has the right to hang onto the zoning they’ve got,” Manley said, adding that Grimm and the homeowners “need to talk.”
The neighborhood and the golf course, along Northeast 72nd Avenue south of Northeast 78th Street, are slated to be brought into the city within the next three years, Manley said.
Grimm is simply trying to get an “assurance of what the zoning will be at time of annexation,” Manley said.
After 15 people spoke out against the zoning plan at a meeting in October, the Vancouver Planning Commission voted against it, citing neighborhood concerns and other worries about a commercial zone planned around Club Green Meadows.
Grimm tweaked what he would designate as commercial zones to fix some of the planning commission’s concerns; the zoning for the golf course remains for high density single family homes.
A lawyer representing Club Green Meadows was unavailable for comment Monday afternoon.
The planning commission’s recommendation against the zoning plan went before the city council Monday for discussion; public comment and a vote to approve or deny the plan is scheduled for Feb. 1. No annexation action will be taken at this time.
Rasmussen said he hopes the council will help its future citizens get the results they want.
“I feel if the city council doesn’t act, they’re threatening our homes,” he said.
