Lakeside development assumes new name, image

In early September, the former Eagle’s Crest subdivision, south of Lakeside surprised locals by changing the decorative lettering at the entrance of the gated community, assuming both a new name — Lakeside Club — and what developer Trevor Schaeffer calls a new image.

Some rumored the name change to have been a tactic, devised to shed the dark pall cast upon the development over the past few years, as well as to disassociate the project from the various lawsuits filed by Flathead Lake Protection Association. Others saw the change as an attempt to imitate certain prestigious resorts or exclusive communities.

However, according to Schaeffer, the name change has been in the discussion stage for a couple of years and is a reflection of a change in what the development is able to offer residents and how the community will be promoted.

“When we started this project, it was just going to be a residential development,” Schaeffer said. “As we began to add more and more amenities, the whole vision changed. Now, it’s a residential development in a growing community that we want to highlight. The name needed to reflect not just what it is but where it is.

“I think Eagle’s Crest was good for a residential development, but now it’s not just Eagle’s Crest. It’s the marina. It’s the boat slips. It’s the golf course. It’s a lot of things that it we didn’t initially foresee, before the project evolved into what it is now. When we started adding amenities like the golf course, it became less like a residential development and more like a club. As our vision for the project changed, we thought it needed a different name.”

Schaeffer said the partners initially thought the name could be something as simple as “Lakeside Club,” but considered hundreds of iterations before settling on that original idea as the preferred moniker.

The partners plan to launch a new advertising campaign, beginning in the spring, aimed at promoting the Flathead Valley and, specifically, Lakeside. Under the campaign, Lakeside Club will be presented as a new kind of development with a new name to reflect the current vision.

Special emphasis will be placed upon the 18-hole, Jim Engh-designed, champion golf course, expected to open in 2010, which will boast its own clubhouse and golf school.

“Jim Engh is the premiere golf course designer in the world, today,” Schaeffer said. “The courses he’s designed are absolutely phenomenal courses, and we think this is going to be one of the top ten courses in the country.

“Jim Engh is known for designing his courses around the landscape and incorporating the landscape into the course itself. He’s not a big earth-mover. He likes to come in, find the intricacies of the land and work around them to create some really spectacular features. Because of the location, this is going to be a spectacular course.”

The course will not, however, be exclusive to residents of Lakeside Club. A limited number of memberships will also be available to people outside of the development.

Schaeffer added that, to preserve the natural beauty of the course, Lakeside Club has already begun working with the Audubon Society to become Audubon Certified. Audubon’s mission consists of conserving and restoring natural ecosystems with a focus on birds and other wildlife, as well as their habitats.

Audubon International certifies golf courses that enroll in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary and Signature Programs and demonstrate their commitment to the environment. Such courses are viewed as eco-friendly courses, which have met the required standards for providing wildlife habitats, protecting water quality and conserving natural resources.

“We are already working with them to make sure that this course meets with their approval and that everything is done to their satisfaction,” Schaeffer said. “In fact, we’re promoting this as a green community and using only green-certified builders. It all goes back to our original vision that we want this development to be a model of what can be done. That’s why we’ve devoted fully 40 percent of the project to open space.”

The prestigious image and elite nature of the development goes far beyond the golf course or building practices. In addition to the marina, the project will provide residents with miles of nature trails for relaxation in the view-centric, high-altitude setting, a spa and fitness center with indoor-outdoor pool, a private airstrip and hangar facilities, and even club concierge services that will help arrange everything from dinner reservations to travel in and beyond Glacier or guided fishing excursions on Flathead Lake.

Although the private airstrip has been a sore spot with some of the neighbors, Schaeffer said that only a few individuals, himself included, are checked out to use the runway because of the extensive approval system that is in place. Rather than constant disruptions from club-driven air traffic, Schaeffer said the airstrip averages about one take-off and landing every couple of weeks. Although that may increase with time, he assures area residents that the club has extensive noise abatement and other policies in place to ensure that impacts from flights in and out of the development go mostly unnoticed.

The project will also contain two pockets of Neighborhood Commercial, with the intent being to minimize “nuisance trips” and unnecessary vehicle traffic on Highway 93. The neighborhood commercial areas will include services such as laundry, a post office and central mail delivery.

As for guesthouses, another area that has been widely contested as increasing the density of the project, Schaeffer referred to the Flathead County Planning and Zoning Office’s definition of a guesthouse and applicable restrictions, adding that very few lots actually possess the capacity to have a detached guest house. According to the Planning Office, guest houses can never be split off or exist independent of the original home, may not be occupied on a fulltime basis, must be considerably smaller and possess fewer bedrooms than the main structure and cannot be used to increase density.

“Guest houses are simply an option for buyers, who’s lots meet the requirements to have one,” Schaeffer said, adding that the kind of people who buy million-dollar homes do not want neighbors living in their back yards.

“This project will never exceed a maximum density of 940 units on 2,273 total acres, despite comments to the contrary,” he said.

He added that ten years from now, he sees the project as having an overwhelmingly positive impact on the local economy, both in construction fees and in the business generated by the project’s residents.

“When you think 940 units, that’s 940 million-dollar homes and more than $940 million in construction, not to mention $56 million in realtor commission fees and millions of dollars in development costs,” he said. “Besides that, workers have to eat and drink somewhere and residents will use other services and businesses.”

In fact, Schaeffer predicted that, even though many of the buyers will only reside in the project part-time, the overall population of Lakeside Club will likely sustain many of the kinds of businesses that have been unable to survive in Lakeside in the past.