The third in a series of meetings about the proposed driving range at West Seattle Golf Course was jam packed with golfers, neighbors and others anxious to see what the design team for the project had come up with Wednesday, night Oct. 27. This, following a meeting in September that was marked by a very vocal contingent of local golfers who saw the proposed changes as "desecration" of the 70 year old, Chandler Egan designed course.

The design team presented a plan that was intended to address, "the environmental concerns, neighborhood concerns and golfer concerns."

(See the attached image files for the current view of the plan plus a phased approach to construction and a meeting outline).

The changes in the latest version, as described by Todd Schoeder of iCon Golf Studio, architect for the design team are, "The biggest changes from our last plan are threefold. We've created three new golf holes and a new driving range facility but in a different location from the other plan that negatively impacted the golf course.

Under this scenario the first golf hole essentially remains the same other than the green location which is moved only about 50 feet to the left (...) We did that so we could lengthen the existing eighth hole (moving the green location) to get a medium to long par 5 which makes up the stroke of par that was lost in the first plan.

By doing that we are now going to create a new 9th hole, par 3 in the old driving range location, which allows us, because it's par 3 to avoid the environmental impacts in that area. It will be a spectacular par 3 that looks over the range to downtown Seattle.

We discovered an opportunity to turn number 8 from a pretty good par 4 right now, into a spectacular par 5. 8 becomes a mammoth par 5. It's 655 yards from the back tee and I would assume that maybe 1% of the people in this room should be playing from that tee. It ranges all the way out to as little as 500 yards so you would have multiple tee locations (...) making it useful for tournaments.

In the overall scheme of the plan we only lost one stroke to par but the golf course will 'play longer' than it does under the current existing condition.

So we created three new golf holes, very close to within budget, a new practice range that is significantly bigger, better, wider than the other ranges. It's fully double loaded. It's got more width. It's got tees at both ends and it would be a really good practice and learning center for the facility."

The driving range itself would be 300 yards long and by "double loaded" Schoeder meant it would allow golfers to hit from both ends. The primary tee would have 50 stalls in tiered arrangement, while the other end would have a natural grass tee, "providing a very different playing experience, and teaching experience for juniors."

Schoeder was quick to add that it was not the team's intention to change the character of the golf course but to "create and match the existing character of the course so golfers can feel proud, and you should feel proud of your golf course."

The only "disconnect" as Schoeder called it was the 250 yard, 12% grade walk from the green on the 8th hole to the tee on the 9th hole.

These changes were met this time with both support from some who acknowledged the design team's efforts and others who disagreed including one attendee who called it "The biggest bait and switch I've ever heard of. When the golf community supported a driving range it was not to alter our golf course. It was never under consideration, except when I heard it mentioned that we were going to swing the 9th hole up on the hill and the driving range was going to go right down the 9th hole. I thought, 'what the hell are you talking about. That's insane. This is by a city who is about to spend $3 billion to put one of our north-south freeways in a tunnel for aesthetic reasons but you can't spend a little money to preserve a course that's listed by Golf Magazine as (...) one of the best urban munies in the country? What are we going to change that to? Used to be? "

Some attending suggested that the plan as originally presented was not what had evolved and now it made more sense to simply "do nothing" and leave the course as it is.

Garrett Farrell, Project Manager for Seattle Parks and Recreation got a big laugh from the crowd when he said, "I work for the city, doing nothing is always an option. I thought I was in the wrong meeting for a minute."

In the original Golf Master Plan, the driving range at West Seattle was identified as the primary goal for any kind of city wide golf facility upgrade. In that plan, which Robert Thorpe of R.W. Thorpe and Associates pointed out was "not vetted" the range was to be located in roughly the same place as the range that was at the course from the 1950's until the early 1980's.

Farrell, and others on the design team pointed out that the location presented far more problems in terms of impacts on the environment, views and more and far higher cost since the hillside there would require significant work.

Farrell was careful to mention that the current plan was the result of many versions, and options considered and said of the second and third versions of proposal, "Both of these had their origins in a whole history of concepts that were based on the original Master Plan including a driving range up on the hillside adjacent to 35th.

Looking at various options, many of which just encroached on Camp Long in a manner that far exceeded what was shown in the master plan and resulted in visual and other impacts to the hillside and 35th, the cost to benefit from almost anything we looked at quickly told us we need to move away from that concept. This team did about as thorough a vetting of that site as possible."

The plan as presented on Sept. 15 was met with a lot of opposition so, "On the morning of Sept. 16 the team was out on the course," said Farrell, "trying to look at what we could do to take that money and put it into a driving range and into improvements rather than just straight impacts on the course (...) It brings us back up into the buffer of Camp Long but it's a much softer impact than what was conceived in the Master Plan."

Thorpe clarified that any of the plans had to pass through a series of "filters" including reviewing impacts on Camp Long, neighborhoods, views and greenbelt, access (trails and traffic), drainage (including grading), wildlife, tree mitigation and wetlands including Longfellow Creek. He emphasized that this project " is an approach to several projects that the city is going to do and it needs to be a model."

Bob Chamberlain, President of the West Seattle Golf Club read a letter aloud that said in part," While protecting the historical nature of the golf course continues to be a major concern for each and every Board member, and a great deal of apprehension has been expressed regarding the experience of a clubhouse and first tee dominated by a driving range, special concern and a certain unease was voiced about the current project budget not allowing for all phases of the design we were shown.

As such, it was unanimously agreed by a vote of the Board that, while of course we are generally in favor of a practice facility at West Seattle, we do not support any option which changes the character of the course so drastically, nor can we support any option not fully funded at its inception.

On behalf of the 704 members of the West Seattle Golf Club we thank you for your efforts and look forward to continuing to work with you throughout the process."

Some of those in attendance acknowledged that the city will likely proceed with their plan in any case so it was simply a matter of finding the right path.

The time frame for construction calls for a 2012 opening under a $2.5 million budget.