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April 14: Four years ago, Glenn Housman invested in a hundred acres at the end of Blacktail Heights Road, on a hilltop above Lakeside.
The rocky position offers perspectives of Flathead Lake, with Blacktail Mountain emerging just to the west. To the south, his plot abuts an expanse of undeveloped mature forest that stretches as far as the eye can see.
It’s a secluded and quiet place with plenty of room to move around, apart from the fifteen other apartments roughly along the gravel driveway that climbs up to Housman’s house.
But the rural setting he and the other Blacktail Heights homeowners could be shattered if the Discovery Land Company’s conceptual plans for a luxury residential network come to fruition.
In January, Housman was approached through a representative of the Scottsdale, Arizona-based Progress Organization, the Iron Horse Golf Club itself in Whitefish, the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky and the Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. to talk to Housman about the option of negotiating an emergency access easement on his assets that would be attached to a site Discovery is contemplating for its newest project.
A conceptual master plan shared with Housman showcases an 18-hole golf club with 361 homes on 1,500 acres just west of the existing Lakeside Club. It would come with a 23,000-square-foot village domain with offices, a general store, and restaurants. A fishing pond and kids’ club are also planned on the village grounds, as well as a sports complex with tennis courts and soccer and baseball fields.
The concept includes 283 “lake-view” housing sites, as well as another 37 housing sites, 20 cabins and 21 golf casitas.
According to the master plan, two golf greens and a dozen homes would be only a few hundred feet from Housman’s south fence.
Concerned about the density and scope of the project, Housman rejected Discovery’s easement proposal. Now he needs to warn the Lakeside network at large about what might be on the horizon.
According to him, this sumptuous progression would bring few advantages, to the detriment of the existing way of life in the city.
“The Lakeside guys would replace them forever,” Housman said.
THE SITE of the proposal is lately owned by TAL
The TAL Package Strip
Flathead County Planning Department officials showed that a pre-bid discussion on the concept was held last fall, but official documents had not been submitted. While the proposal is not zoned, any progression plan would be subject to the county’s typical public review process. . The new Lakeside Community Council would also be involved.
Janie Lewer of the Upper West Shore Alliance says the local advocacy organization agrees with the proposal.
“It’s an issue within the community,” Lewer said in a phone interview last month.
He said the Alliance needs to engage the citizens of Lakeside to make sure they have a voice as the proposal becomes a reality. One of the most important concerns the organization has already pointed out is the remote site of the busy U. S. 93 section.
Based on traffic studies conducted for other projects, the Alliance calculates that an asset with 300 homes can produce only about 3,000 trips per day, which would be different for a hotel with seasonal workers and residents.
“It’s a precarious road with the elevation and the curves,” Lewer said of U. S. 93 south of Lakeside.
According to the control plan, it’s unclear where the number one and secondary problems would be located. The map indicates that the breakthrough would supply the Legacy Bike Park south of the site.
Lech Naumovich, a representative of the motorcycle park, said he was aware of the development plans and had been contacted through the developer. He said the personal road leading to the motorcycle park from the U. S. 93 is an easement shared with multiple owners.
“The map says ‘motorcycle park access,’ but it’s still unclear, this is a right-of-way that leads to the park,” Naumovich said in an email to Inter Lake. “It’s not so much an ‘access’ as it’s a road that leads to the motorcycle park. No Legacy Bike Park land is included in this development. We continue to monitor the progress of this assignment and cooperate with all parties involved. “
He said Legacy respects the rights to the assets and also believes in preserving the integrity of Lakeside and its landscape.
With significant wildfire activity in the surrounding domain over the past two summers, Housman is curious about what developers will provide as a secondary emergency that doesn’t lead directly to US 93, which he believes would be problematic.
In addition to access, Lewer is also involved in the impact on Lakeside’s infrastructure, schools, and public safety resources. Currently, the all-volunteer Somers-Lakeside Fire Department is serving the area.
“What are [the developers] going to contribute to the community?” Lewer.
“What’s the effect on the infrastructure as a whole?Roads, banks, grocery stores and what does that look like for growth of this magnitude?”
A luxury progression like the proposal, he said, conflicts with local residents’ preference for Lakeside’s rural character.
“The citizens of Lakeside love Lakeside as it is today,” he said. “We’ve struggled to achieve positive growth. “
Housman posed the same questions and wondered how an exclusive progression similar to the Yellowstone Club’s would affect the entire valley.
“The consequences of a progression of this magnitude (as proposed) will be far-reaching, affecting all existing local citizens in the Lakeside domain and beyond in very extensive ways,” Housman warned. “Even though it would be my site the most, you can believe that something like this will have an effect on the entire valley. “
FOUNDED IN 1994 through Mike Meldman, Discovery Land Company’s portfolio includes 33 exclusive enclaves around the world. The company has advances and resorts in Montana, Idaho, California, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, New York, Nevada, and Arizona, as well as foreign locations in Mexico, Canada, Portugal, Costa Rica, Scotland, and the United Arab Emirates.
In addition to golf, communities focus on activities such as synthetic wave surfing at the Austin Surf Club of Texas or the world’s only personal ski hotel at the Yellowstone Club.
In an interview on the Studio 22 podcast last year, Meldman described the company as “a recreational hotel and a lifestyle community. “
On the podcast, Meldman said the Yellowstone Club is among his favorite projects to date. The club has 864 members and caters to a roster of billionaires and celebrities. Reportedly, the club’s list of clubs includes Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google. CEO Eric Schmidt, as well as high-profile celebrities such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, and Jessica Biel.
Meldman estimates that about 2,000 people are employed at Discovery’s properties, adding up stages of structure and ongoing operations. That figure could double for the Yellowstone Club, given its size, he said.
“It’s not just a big company, it’s a great work base,” Meldman said on the podcast. “We’re in a lot of rural areas that want an economic stimulus. “
Meldman was part of the organization of investors involved in the personal development of Iron Horse from three hundred masses on 800 acres in Whitefish. The task was approved by the Whitefish City Council in 1997 after two years of impassioned public comment. According to a 1999 Inter Lake article, Iron Horse was expected to have a $150 million economic impact on the valley, while developers could pocket around $60 million once the structure was completed.
Lot costs at Iron Horse averaged $200,000 at the start of the task in the late 1990s. Today, undeveloped land within Iron Horse is priced at more than $1 million.
In an interview with Cultured in 2022, Meldman noted that Iron Horse was the first task of Discovery’s Outdoor Pursuits program focused on outdoor recreation opportunities.
“My kids were with me the whole time and they’ve become real mountaineers,” he said. “We lived full-time in San Francisco, but thanks to our time in Montana, not only can they play football and basketball, but they can also tie their own flies to fish, wakeboard, raft, ski, pass out in the wild. Backpacking and camping outdoors is an intrinsic facet of the club – we’ve embraced local activities and culture.
Discovery Land Company continues to pursue projects in many locations across the United States.
According to a March 25 Steamboat Pilot article, the company has initial plans for a 700-home project on 6,400 acres near Colorado’s famed ski resort. This project would include skiing and a golf course, similar to the Yellowstone Club.
During its new development along Lake Tahoe in California, the company upset locals in 2022 when it revealed that Discovery was considering privatizing the public ski domain it owns as part of the Homewood Mountain and Lake Club. The band Keep Homewood Public has been a strong opponent of this concept, and last winter, Discovery scaled back its members-only plan.
A gate separates Lakeside resident Glenn Housman’s land at the end of Blacktail Heights Road from a luxury residential development and golf club. (Matt Baldwin/Daily Inter Lake)
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