Greg Norman breaks ground on Tetonia golf resort

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

By Sam Petri

On a height of land seven miles northwest of Tetonia, Idaho, on Hwy. 33, a crowd of about 200 gathered last Wednesday around four Volvo excavators. Among the crowd was Brent and Rodger Hoopes, whose family managed the surrounding 5,300 acres as a farm for three generations; Mike Potter and Tom Clinton of Potter Clinton Development Inc., a company that over the years has been responsible for the Teton Springs golf resort near Victor, Idaho, and Teton Pines in Jackson Hole; and Greg Norman, two-time British Open champ and principal of Greg Norman Course Designs, a division of Great White Shark Enterprises.

The occasion was a groundbreaking ceremony for the new 350-acre, 18-hole, Norman-designed Teton Rim Golf Course, the crown jewel of what will be River Rim Ranch. The golf course is expected to be finished by 2010. Eventually, a total of 620 housing units will surround it.

Division I, which rests upon the 2.5-mile section of the Teton River known locally as The Narrows, consists of 410 residential units that rest mostly on 13-acre or greater parcels. Division II, across Hwy. 33 to the south, consists of 210 units that will be located along the golf course in roughly 2-acre parcels. Sixty percent of the acreage will remain open space, managed mainly as hay fields in perpetuity.

“We are very delighted to be breaking the ground on the Teton Rim Golf Course,” said Managing Partner and Planner Mike Potter, who was briefly interrupted when three scheduled Warbird aircraft buzzed the groundbreaking site during his speech, “We honestly believe that we will have one of the absolute best golf courses in the region that will probably be nationally recognized as we get further down,” he said to the crowd – new homeowners on the resort or potential buyers.

“It is an interesting process to say the least, when you come out to design a golf course. It is a very collaborative effort,” said Greg Norman, who then addressed the Hoopes brothers standing beside him. “Your environmental stewardship, by the way that you’ve done your agricultural process here, has helped us protect the environment. Congratulations to you.”

Then Norman, with the Teton Range as the backdrop, mounted a new Volvo excavator equipped with a golden bucket and – flanked by Potter, CFO Tom Clinton and the Hoopes brothers each on their own excavators – broke ground on the course with four simultaneous ceremonial scoops. 

“How can you stop development?” Norman said to the Planet during a press conference shortly after the groundbreaking ceremony. “That’s like saying no more birth. It’s going to keep going. People want to find the destination that suits their lifestyle. Creating what’s happening here in Teton Valley is creating a destination for some people that like it … I don’t see any problem with development as long as it’s managed in the right way.”

Greg Norman Golf Course Design has developed 35 courses in the U.S. and Europe and 23 in Australia and Asia. Including Teton Rim Golf Course, the company has 33 courses currently in progress in the U.S. and Europe, and nine in progress in Australia and Asia.  
“It’s not about density,” said River Rim’s Marketing Director Doug Gemmel, referring to their plan. “It’s about amenities, open space and acreage.”

Those amenities include a gas station, general store, golf pro shop, fly shop, fine dining restaurant and perhaps even a brew pub, also expected to be completed by 2010. This commerce area will allow members of River Rim to remain independent of nearby Tetonia and allow for some public access.

The number of destination resort developments going on in Teton Valley, Idaho, has some residents worried that they will ruin the very valley and view the developers are using as a marketing tool to sell homes. Larry Young, a member of the three-person County Board of Commissioners, said the county Planning and Zoning Commission has its hands full with 80 large development applications in the pipeline. To help deal with the backlog, they have hired Colorado land-use planning firm Clarion Associates to come to Teton County to audit the land use ordinances and to make recommendations for improving them.

“A good planning and urban development ordinance is complex,” said Young, “and we need help.”

The pace of development in Teton Valley has become so frenzied, even Rodger Hoopes is experiencing the backlash. When he served on the Teton County Planning Commission, circa 2001, he, along with other commissioners, including Young, voted to increase the number of homes allowed in new developments by a factor of 12.
“We’ve had our heads in the sand,” Young admitted.

Previously, five housing units per 100 acres were allowed in Teton County, Idaho; now 60 homes per 100 acres are allowed – the equivalent of suburban density. This vote affected 120,000 to 150,000 privately held acres in the valley and opened the floodgates for development. It allowed Hoopes, who is no longer on the Planning Commission, to put more homes on his 5,300-acre piece of land and create the development that is River Rim Ranch.

But now, just south of River Rim Ranch, a developer is planning a 400-unit, 700-acre destination resort dubbed Big Hole Fly-In Reserve, complete with an airstrip. The proposed development uses the same zoning laws that were voted in under Hoopes. Ironically, PCD, developers of the Hoopes land, have protested the development that could potentially change the aesthetics of their adjacent River Rim Ranch.

“We received their application six months ago,” Young said. “The concept was denied on the basis of density, but the developer was within his rights.  He could probably fight it and win. But, he’ll come back with the density pared down.”

Current ordinances have helped Teton Valley land values increase by 60 percent over the past five years, which in turn has created a land rush and rapid development, according to Young. “We’re concerned we’ll loose young, talented people who can’t buy into the market,” he said.

Photo by Sam Petri
The entrance to the River Rim Ranch development that will feature a Greg Norman-designed golf course.

PERMALINK:
Greg Norman breaks ground on Tetonia golf resort | Planet JH News Article: Victor/Driggs, ID

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