City quells concerns about Lincoln Park disc golf course

A preliminary design of the Lincoln Park disc golf course. The yellow lines represent the first nine holes of the course. Illustration courtesy of the city of Blaine

By Stefanie Donahue

Since announcing plans to install a disc golf course at Lincoln Park in February, the city has received some pushback.

At a city council meeting on March 26, Blaine community planner Alex Wenger said the park and cemetery board had budgeted $25,000 to install an 18-hole disc golf course and make improvements to the 27-acre park’s lighting and asphalt trail. Wenger said the city expected to open the new course as early as this June.

Announcement of the new course spurred criticism from some residents who were concerned about the environmental impact, cost of the park, and the combination of flying discs and roaming dogs (Lincoln Park is one of two designated off-leash dog parks in Blaine).

To quell concerns, Wenger made a brief presentation to the city council and stated that the park and cemetery board is in the process of developing a detailed maintenance plan for the course to detect any impacts from flying discs and ensure that the park remains in good condition.

“We are moving forward with construction of the disc golf course,” Wenger said to city council at the regular meeting on Monday. “We want to blend the planned future improvements in Lincoln Park, which is more than just disc golf.” Adding, “We’re continuing to review that.”

Addressing another concern, Wenger said, the city is also planning to provide trash cans at Lincoln Park. He added, “I think the maintenance of this disc golf course will be extremely low.”

Several members of the public came forward to comment on the project on Monday, including president of the Whatcom Disc Golf Club Ryan Klassen who said, “I’m here to express my excitement for the enhancement of Lincoln Park and the opportunity to put in a disc golf course.”

The group has committed several hours to plan the layout of the course and remove debris and invasive plants such as ivy.

City councilmembers Bonnie Onyon and Eric Davidson expressed their concern about potential impacts of the disc golf course on the environment and park users, but said they have faith in the park and cemetery board to monitor it and make changes accordingly.

“I think our parks board has done a fairly good job of thinking this through,” said city councilmember Alicia Rule.

“This is new and when anything new comes in, I think there will be a period where we will have to monitor both the positive and negative effects,” said city councilmember Mary Lou Steward. “Make sure that safety is not an issue. Make sure that there are no problems with dogs, discs or whatever and just reassess it in a few months’ time to see how it works.”