Crescent Bar about to lose its golf course and housing

Crescent Bar Golf Course sits on an island in the Columbia River, but this could change according to PUD

Crescent Bar Island is undoubtedly a paradise by Northwest standards. Its natural beauty has been enjoyed for years by visitors and by its 415 families that own vacation homes there, or rather leased homes there.

The Grant County Public Utility District, which owns the property, has decided not to renew the lease for the area, which will turn age 50 in 2012. By doing so, they are telling its residents that they will have to leave, and for the 65 leaseholders that live in the Bar all year, it means finding a new home.

In April, the PUD unanimously voted not to renew the lease. The decision will not be popular with some of the current residents, but it was made based on a federal dam regulation that states the area must be used for public recreation, not private home ownership according to King 5 News.

The land will be back open to the public once again as it was before the condos and homes were built. The facilities, buildings and the golf course were all constructed during the lease period and may not be in the future plans for the island after 2012.

The Crescent Bar Golf Course has 148 members and had brought in $241,000 in the last calendar year, according to a Columbian Basin Herald report, but some PUD members, like Commissioner Greg Hansen, believe that running a golf course on the new island will be too expensive as opposed to something like a city park.

“I think it would have more of an appeal for a greater cross-section of people,” Hansen said in the Columbian Basin Herald article. “When you look at the population as a whole, I don’t know what percentage are golfers, but would suspect it would be less than those who want to picnic.”

The fate of the golf course and other aspects of change after the lease ends, may very well be decided in the upcoming open house meeting hosted by the PUD.

The meetings will be held early this month in Moses Lake and Qunicy, Washington, respectively. At the meetings, the public is encouraged to attend and voice their opinion as to what is to be done with the golf course and other existing facilities. For the future of golf on the island, those meetings may have the final say.

“Those decisions will need to be made,” PUD spokesperson Dorothy Harris said in the Columbian Basin Herald article.

“People will be able to weigh in on retaining the golf course and whether the above will sustain a golf course and condos.”