Newaukum Valley Golf Course is located at 153 Newaukum Golf Dr. in Chehalis.
Documents filed with the City of Chehalis on behalf of Newaukum Valley Golf Course ownership provide a glimpse at the potential future of the course and 32-unit apartment complex located east of Interstate 5 between Chehalis and Napavine.
Real estate agent Gary Fox of Century 21 Lund Realtors submitted a petition on March 26 to amend the Chehalis Comprehensive Plan to fold slightly less than half of the 125 acre plot of land into the city’s urban growth area. The golf course and apartment complex are listed for sale on the Century 21 Lund website for nearly $7 million.
Fox declined to get into much detail when reached for comment, choosing to refer specifics to owner John Date, who could not be reached prior to press time. Fox also declined to reveal whether the application was submitted at the behest of a potential buyer or with the intent of making the property more attractive to prospective investors.
Under a prompt to detail why a change in the land’s status is necessary, Fox wrote: “To provide additional housing to meet expanding needs of projected growth for the city of Chehalis …”
“It creates additional options,” Fox said. “This particular golf course has 27 holes. The idea is certainly to keep it at 18 and maybe all 27, but to also allow for more flexibility.”
Fox also wrote in the March 26 application that making the change would add housing for a wide range of population demographics and add to the tax base. The property falls under the umbrella of Water-Sewer District 4, which is already serviced by the city of Chehalis.
The parcel of land that includes the golf course holds a current value of $1.228 million, according to the Lewis County Assessor’s Office. The one on which the apartment complex sits carries an assessed value of $1.272 million. Another adjoining parcel under the same account number as the first two is valued at $401,300.
An “Applicant Conference Application” submitted by Centralia lawyers Joe Enbody and Trevor Westlund on Feb. 10 states on behalf of Date that they’re exploring the idea of annexing a portion of the course into the UGA and looking to develop at least 40 of those acres into residential housing.
Hillary Hoke, building and planning manager for Chehalis, said the Lewis County Planned Growth Committee takes the lead on requests to change urban growth area boundaries. Applications are due in September prior to the year they’re considered, so the Newaukum Golf Course likely won’t be in front of the committee until 2020.
“This one will move forward with analysis to see if we can recommend the changes, but it won’t be reviewed by the county group until next year,” Hoke said. “Preliminary comments from us are usually done within a couple of weeks, which the analysis we’d have to turn in to the planned growth committee probably takes a few months.”
One application on track for review this year by the planned growth committee, according to Hoke, is that of Raindrop Properties LLC, owned in part by state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia.
Braun filed paperwork with Chehalis on March 27 seeking to move 10 land parcels totaling 677 acres from the city of Centralia UGA to that of Chehalis. An attached letter from Dan Penrose of SCJ Alliance to Trent Lougheed, community development director of Chehalis, states the move is being requested because access to the Chehalis sewer line would be less difficult and expensive than connecting to the Centralia system. According to Penrose, the nearest connection to the Chehalis sewer line is about 4,500 feet from the property line, whereas the closest Centralia hookup is over 7,000 feet away and would require additional upgrades due to capacity limitations.
“We’ve been working on it for a couple of years,” Braun said. “With three different local governments involved, it’ll take another year probably to work through.”
Braun’s filing states the parcels are in the process of being released from the Centralia UGA so the transaction can be completed this year. Hoke said Chehalis would need to show the county through its analysis that it would be capable of serving the additional land via existing infrastructure or interlocal agreements.
“Our approach is more long-term,” Braun said. “We’re thinking in decades as far as how long it will take to fully build out and develop that space, but it’s important to prepare.”
