Continued: Edina golf club's new plan satisfies some, upsets others

After nearly nine months of debate and several redesigns of its plans for new maintenance facilities, Interlachen Country Club in Edina has finally gotten a proposal through the city's Planning Commission.

The club's plan, which as it evolved was opposed first by residents of one neighborhood and then by residents of another, is scheduled to go to the City Council on July 7.

Planning Commission member Floyd Grabiel, who criticized the club's previous plans, said Interlachen had responded to his concerns.

"We do have an unfortunate situation where we seem to have pitted one block against another block, but ... this location makes sense for many reasons," he said. "The proposal, it seems to me, is an enhancement of the site." The new site "has never been used as residential, never been part of the neighborhood."

Earlier this year, residents of Belmore Lane at the golf course's northwest edge rose up to oppose the club's proposal to build a 20,000-square-foot maintenance building near the end of their cul-de-sac on land that had once been residential property. They didn't like the industrial look of the planned steel-clad building, which would have covered more than half an acre.

They asked that the club move the building south to an area on the course called the "chicken farm," where the club had hoped to build a short-game practice area.

In January, all but one of nine Planning Commission members sided with residents, rejecting the club's original plan. They said the building would have been out of place in the neighborhood.

Although club officials at the time defended the site near Belmore Lane as their best option, the new proposal shifts the project south to the chicken farm location and reduces the size of the primary maintenance building from 20,000 to about 16,000 square feet. It also alters the building's appearance to make much of the exterior stucco and wood, mimicking the Tudor appearance of the main clubhouse.

Vehicles would access the building from roads within the golf course, not from the neighborhood, which had been an issue in one of the club's previous plans.

Commission members called the new building an improvement to the chicken farm site. The land has never been residential. From the 1940s until the 1960s, there was a chicken-processing building there. The club bought the site around 1970, after the slaughterhouse had burned down.

"We do believe this is the last feasible option that we have," Interlachen board member Lyle Ward told the commission. "Our current maintenance facility is 50 years old, in poor condition, and creates poor working conditions for employees."

Ward said that many of the homes near the chicken farm were built when it was still operating as a slaughterhouse.

But now the residents who live near the chicken farm site are not happy.

Nearby residents on Kresse Circle and other streets said they had barely had time to react to the new plan, and they didn't like what they had seen.

Melissa Franzen called the new building "an eyesore" and said more than 100 trees would have to be removed for construction. She said neighbors are worried about noise.

A real estate agent said that in her opinion, property values would suffer, though Edina's city assessor predicted that will not happen. Resident John King said that with tree and brush removal necessary for construction, there would be little buffer between the new building and neighbors.

"This plan was presented to us as kind of a slam dunk and they're going to get it done," King said. "That hurt people's feelings because we thought we had a relationship with Interlachen."

But several commission members said they thought the club had gone above and beyond the call of duty in trying to make the project amenable to neighbors. Commissioners asked that the club make sure the building is adequately screened with evergreens or other plantings as well as a fence. Commissioner Michael Fischer noted that the club had turned the parking doors in the proposed structure away from neighbors to limit noise, and he said construction would improve an industrial site.

"This has not been an easy process, and we understand the impact it has on neighbors," he said. "I don't know if it matters where we pick along this golf course ... somebody's going to have a problem ...

"Ultimately, we have to take the proposal that's handed to us and make our findings of fact. And frankly, I think this is a good proposal."

Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380