Apple Valley City Council Authorizes Funds for Schematics of Valleywood Clubhouse

The Apple Valley City Council on Thursday approved 4-1 a proposal to hire an architect to create a schematic drawing of a potential new clubhouse at the city’s Valleywood Golf Course.

Council member Tom Goodwin and Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland emphasized that approving the use of $5,000 from the city’s parks dedication fund to find out how much a clubhouse might cost didn’t mean a new building was certain.

“If we don’t like [the cost], we don’t have to move forward,” Goodwin said.

Valleywood’s clubhouse was built in the late 1970s by Dakota County Technical College students for $85,000. It also was built for a city of about one-third Apple Valley’s population, Russ Defauw, chairman of the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, said at a March council meeting.

The clubhouse has “outlasted its life,” Councilman John Bergman said on Thursday.

To fix the foundation, update sewer systems, provide handicap-accessible bathrooms and make other repairs could cost $1.5 million, Bergman said.

“When you go look at the building … it is literally falling off the foundation,” he said. “I don’t want to spend good money on an old building.”

Council members threw out different potential price estimates on Thursday and at previous meetings, some in the $3 million range, but they several times returned to the fact that nobody yet knows what the actual cost would be.

Defauw said in March that the parks dedication fund—a fund that developers in Apple Valley must pay into—and a loan from the city’s Future Capital Projects fund would finance a new clubhouse.

Councilwoman Ruth Grendahl, who voted against funding the schematic drawing, said Thursday she’d have issues with a cost like $3 million, even coming out of the parks dedication fund.

Grendahl said she thought the city should poll residents to see whether they’d support a new clubhouse; a poll conducted in 2006 asked Apple Valley residents whether they’d support a tax increase for a Valleywood clubhouse, and 63 percent said no.

Goodwin said this situation is different because taxpayers wouldn’t fund a new clubhouse.

“If you don’t play golf, it doesn’t cost you a nickel,” Goodwin said.

Grendahl said she believes that since the capital project fund has money in it to provide a loan for a new clubhouse, that taxpayers have overpaid into it and essentially would be helping fund the new clubhouse.

She asked whether the money transferred from the city’s liquor store fund could be used for a golf course clubhouse.

Defauw said in March that for four years, Valleywood has had an operating surplus, and he expects the trend to continue.

He said then that the city should invest in features to generate revenue. The Valleywood clubhouse is a business proposition, he said, and could lead to more opportunities to host tournaments or business outings at the course.

“We seek to balance … a sound business model … with an affordable recreational experience for our residents,” he said.

Councilman Clint Hooppaw said a schematic drawing is a “relatively inexpensive step” to see if building a new clubhouse would be feasible.

The schematics would be drawn up in three to four weeks, and then a final budget and design would be determined, according to the memo from Director of Parks and Recreation Randy Johnson.

“Let’s just see where it goes,” Goodwin said.