The first step at the Edina, Minn. club involves a new lodge and restaurant, fitness center and tennis courts. Future restoration to the golf course would include rebuilding the greens and tees, updating the bunkers and modernizing the grass.
Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn. has begun the first step in transforming its facility as part of a redevelopment and restoration project that will cost about $30 million, the Sun Current reported.
The first step involves redeveloping the club’s west campus, encompassing a new lodge and restaurant, fitness center and tennis courts, if a conditional use permit garners approval from the Edina City Council later this month, the Sun Current reported. The redevelopment of the western portion of the campus is one aspect of a larger master plan the club has for its facility – a move that was approved by its members late last year, the club said.
“At the center of Interlachen’s mission is families and golf,” Joel Livingood, General Manager and CEO of Interlachen, told the Sun Current. “This project is really a transformation of our club experience to provide our families … with an experience that better meet needs and desires today and what we think will be for several decades to come.”
The 170-acre Interlachen Country Club, founded in 1909, includes the membership of 820 families, 70% of which live in Edina, and employs 325 people during the summer, the Sun Current reported. The club will also host the 2030 U.S. Women’s Open, the second time the golf championship has come to the facility.
Because of that event and other factors, Livingood said the club is moving forward with its master plan to redevelop its west campus and restore its golf course, the Sun Current reported. Small changes to the Interlachen’s clubhouse are also planned, he added. Club documents noted that the plan is intended to heighten the status of the facility, meet member demand for amenities and get rid of some of its deferred maintenance.
“It was time to upgrade those facilities,” Livingood said.
Future restoration to the golf course would include rebuilding the greens and tees, updating the bunkers and modernizing the grass to “allow for an even more consistent championship playing experience,” Livingood added.
The entire project has a $30 million price tag, including about $7 million for the golf course project alone, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported in January.
But only changes to the first phase of the master plan, the western portion of the campus, were brought forward for consideration of a conditional use permit by the council, the Sun Current reported. The matter is set to be decided July 19. No other aspects of the plan are required to gain a conditional use permit, Livingood said.
The club’s west campus site currently has a 1980s-era lodge, event lawn, five clay tennis courts, two hard tennis courts and two platform tennis courts, the Sun Current reported. During the winter months, the clay tennis courts are also used as hockey and skating rinks, according to the documents submitted to the city by Interlachen.
Proposed changes to the site include all-new facilities, such as a larger lodge and connected family-focused restaurant as well as a fitness center, five clay tennis courts, two pickleball courts, three platform tennis courts and two covered, hard tennis courts, the Sun Current reported. The clay tennis courts are expected to be used as rinks in the winter, it added.
The covered, or indoor, tennis courts are intended to extend the use of the facility over the entire year, Livingood told the Sun Current. To create the structure for the courts, the club requested a building height variance allowing 39 feet, deviating from the city standard of 20 feet, city documents show.
Staff recommended approval of the conditional use permit, citing in the staff report that the proposal meets such criteria and does not alter the character of the neighborhood, among other reasons, the Sun Current reported. The staff recommendation also requests that conditions for approval include limited hours of operation for the restaurant service, fitness center and tennis courts, including their use as wintertime hockey rinks.
Prior to the most recent proposal, Interlachen Country Club came to the city last summer for a conditional use permit to expand its boundaries, adding a new parking lot and practice facilities, the Sun Current reported. A part of that project also included a gate to cut off access to the club through a residential street.
The request, which was not a part of the $30 million master plan, had received much pushback from neighbors immediately surrounding Interlachen, the Sun Current reported. It was later approved by the council.
The most recent proposal for the western portion of campus saw some of those same reactions as neighbors pointed out concerns with noise, lighting and construction traffic, the Sun Current reported. Neighbors voiced such issues to the council at a June 15 public hearing. The public comment period remains open until July 11.
Several neighbors wished to see a 15-foot-tall solid fence screening the facility from the homes and limiting the hours of operation for the restaurant and hockey rink, the Sun Current reported. Some also wished Interlachen to cease use of a specific street for construction traffic.
But Livingood said Interlachen “prides itself on being a good neighbor and we want to continue to be good neighbors.”
Much of the input received over several months “influenced the plans for these improvements on the west side,” he told the Sun Current. That influence included the movement of structures further away from the club’s property lines, upgrades to its sound and lighting design and the expansion of landscaping, according to Livingood.
If the conditional use permit is approved, construction on the west campus will begin in August, Livingood told the Sun Current. Golf course restoration is expected to begin next summer, and be complete in 2024, he added.
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