Buffalo Hill Golf Course seeks longer lease

The 240 acres and facilities at Buffalo Hill Golf Course are due for a much-needed facelift.

But the Kalispell Golf Association, the group that leases the publicly held land from the city and runs the golf course and clubhouse, needs a loan to take care of that deferred maintenance and carry out some substantial capital improvements.

Lenders seem willing to loan the money, but want the association to be assured it will have control of the course longer than the eight years left on its current lease.

So the association's board is asking for a lease that runs another 20 years from now. The City Council took this as an opportunity to review the lease provisions.

Steve Dunfee, executive director of the golf association, brought a couple OF board members to the Kalispell City Council's work session Monday night to help answer questions on the lease being negotiated with the city Parks and Recreation Department.

Parks and Recreation Director Mike Baker did extensive research into other golf-course leases across the region. He looked into affordability for local golfers using the municipal course, maintainance of the city's assets there and what comes back to the city.

Baker presented a draft lease Monday that runs for 20 years, incorporates compliance with the city's stormwater standards, provides for the capital assets to be protected and sets out a lease payment schedule.

The minimum payment would be $13,000, paid to the city annually. If the rolling average gross receipts - the average of money collected over the previous three years - exceeds $750,000, the lease payment will be 2 percent of the gross receipts. If it exceeds $850,000, the lease payment will be 2.5 percent.

Since 1992, under current and past leases, Dunfee said the Kalispell Golf Association has contributed $3.5 million to the city through lease and other payments.

The lease also includes a multiple-use policy covering golfers, skiers, sledders, joggers and others as appropriate.

But the biggest question coming out of the talks is whether the lease should go up for a public vote in the November general election.

City Attorney Charles Harball said that Montana law requires a public vote if city land is set aside as a public trust, meaning the land has been set aside to be used for a specific purpose. If a proposed change would take it out of that specific use, the public must weigh in on the matter.

This land was donated to the city in various chunks beginning with the Cameron Nine in the early 1930s. All but about two acres of the 240-acre total were deeded over since then with the caveat that the land be used as a public golf course.

Although the structure of a public trust was not set up with a trust administrator and trustees, Harball explained that for purposes of the statute the city does have a public trust at Buffalo Hill Golf Course.

But, he added, Montana law requires a public vote only when the use of that public trust will be changed from its original intent. Since Kalispell Golf Association intends to continue operating it as a golf course and wants only an extension of the lease, a public vote is not mandatory.

But council member Bob Hafferman noted that it might be a good idea anyway.

"The golf course has always been an asset, and most of the residents have always appreciated it," he said. The law calls for a vote in one circumstance and, since it will cost the city nothing to put in on the general election ballot, the city could only stand to benefit, he added.

"This is a 20-year lease and I don't want to see it start with a cloud," Hafferman said. "There always is some negativity" that pops up in public discussion, and a public vote could stem that.

The current 20-year lease negotiated in 1997 was put to a public vote, probably because of the political climate at the time, Harball said. Dunfee told the council the issue passed with an 80 percent approval rate.

It may have left the perception that a vote is required on the current lease extension, Harball said.

Council member Hank Olson asked who may object to the proposal.

"This is quite a city asset," Harball answered, "and there may be some who say the city should manage it better."

Council member Wayne Saverud looked for assurances that the city's land would be protected, and suggested increasing payments.

"This is very well managed But we have a tremendous asset, very valuable real estate," and the city needs to guard that value, Saverud said. Harball assured him that maintaining the city's asset is the golf association's top priority, "and we don't want to get in their way in doing that."

Mayor Pam Kennedy asked for a resolution on whether to hold a public vote to be drafted for consideration at the Aug. 17 regular council meeting. All ballot issues must be filed with the election department by Aug. 20.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com