16 November 2007

UM plans golf course development despite objections

BOZEMAN - An effort by the University of Montana to expand its campus by building on the university's golf course cleared a committee Thursday and will be considered by the state Board of Regents.

A handful of Missoula residents and golfers attended the meeting of the board's Administrative, Budget and Audit Oversight Committee, urging members not to approve the plan. They argued the golf course is valuable to the campus and said the planned classrooms, housing and other facilities would be too far from the main campus if built on the greens.

However, the committee decided to move the plan to the full board for consideration Friday.

"We're very interested in finalizing the process," UM President George Dennison told the panel.

The university said it held numerous public meetings and did what it could to allay the concerns of its neighbors in its planning process. The university said it is necessary for it to plan for future development on the golf course.

The school said it could be decades, though, until the land is actually developed. But development could move more quickly if big donors stepped forward for the project.

"We tried to be very inclusive," said Rosie Keller, associate vice president for administration and finance. "I will tell you that I really don't know what else we could have done."

Cindy Cone, with the Mount Sentinel Women's Golf Association, said the golf course makes money for the school, and is too far away for students to get back and forth through the neighborhood.

"We really want to save the golf course," she said. "It's used as one of the highlights in the advertising for the university, and I think it needs to continue going on."

Pete Tolton, a student senator, said the campus does not need any more buildings. He said the open green space provided by the golf course is more important.

"When do we say 'no' to building new buildings?" he asked the committee.

Dennison said the university considered open space and other issues in making its development plan.

"So far as we could, we tried to take into account the concerns that have been raised," he said.

Regent Lila Taylor said she supported the plan.

"I don't know how many other ways you could have involved the public," she said.

The university had tried in the past to sell condominiums and houses on the golf course, a plan ultimately rejected amid a public outcry in Missoula.

But Taylor said the university has done a much better job this time of vetting the development plan through public meetings.

Even if the plan gets final approval from the full board, the university will need to get approval for construction of individual buildings if it finds money to build them.