Planning commission approves rezoning around Ray Richards Golf Course for driving-range and apartments over neighborhood objections

The Grand Forks Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously Jan. 7 to approve a replat and companion rezoning for portions of the Ray Richards Golf Course at 3801 Demers Avenue, clearing the way for a planned unit development that includes a TopTracer-style driving range and a multifamily area.

Ryan Brooks, the city planner presenting the item, described stormwater easements and said the replat and PUD language will preserve a golf-course designation for much of the site while allowing a multifamily block of about 169 units at 34th and Demers and a commercial B3 strip along South 42nd that would host the driving-range and associated clubhouse. Brooks said staff sent notices and recommended approval.

Neighbors pressed the commission during a lengthy public-comment period. Dennis McLeod of 825 Orchard Circle asked whether the planning department had studied the rezoning’s effect on Garden View townhome property values and raised pedestrian-safety questions about students crossing 42nd Street to reach a proposed bar or driving-range. McLeod asked whether the developer or the city would be responsible for new pedestrian signals or an overpass; staff and the developer said an overpass was not planned and that the project would provide safer though indirect pedestrian connections.

Dan Kosowski, president of the Garden View Townhomes Association, said the rezoning "now threatens our neighborhood with decreasing home values, traffic congestion, noise, light pollution, and safety risk," and urged the commission to vote no. He described the association as primarily homeowner-occupied and said the proposed driving-range poles would be "160 foot tall"—"the 2nd or 3rd highest structure in Grand Forks," he said.

Brooks and commissioners responded that rezoning portions of the property to a golf-course PUD would make the golf use explicit and that, under the proposed zoning, the commercial strip along 42nd would be limited to B3 uses (commercial) and would not allow residential development in that immediate frontage. Brooks said if the TopTracer-like operator did not proceed, the parcel would still be constrained by the PUD and B3 requirements; different commercial uses could occupy the site consistent with B3.

Commissioner Megan Sandy moved approval and the motion carried unanimously.

The approval covers the replat, street dedications and the PUD rezoning; detailed site plans, building permits, engineering and any required mitigations or public-improvement agreements remain subject to later administrative review and approvals.