Conceptual plans emerge for luxury resort in Lakeside

Four years ago, Glenn Housman invested in 100 acres at the end of Blacktail Heights Road atop a knob above Lakeside.

The rocky perch offers views of Flathead Lake, with Blacktail Mountain rising just to the west. To the south, his parcel abuts an expanse of undeveloped mature forest land that stretches for as far as he can see.

It's a secluded, quiet spot with ample elbow room, aside from the 15 or so other residences along the private gravel road that climbs up to Housman's home.

But the rural setting he and other homeowners along Blacktail Heights enjoy may be shattered if conceptual plans from Discovery Land Company for a luxury residential community come to fruition.

In January, Housman was approached by a representative of the Scottsdale, Arizona-based development group that is behind the private Iron Horse Golf Club in Whitefish, the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky and Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The representative wanted to talk with Housman about the possibility of negotiating an emergency access easement across his property that would connect to a site Discovery is considering for its latest project.

A conceptual master plan shared with Housman shows an 18-hole golf club with 361 housing units across 1,500 acres just west of the existing Lakeside Club. The site would feature a 23,000-square-foot village area with offices, a general store and restaurants. Also planned for the village area is a fishing pond and kids club, and a sports complex featuring tennis courts, and soccer and baseball fields.

The concept shows 283 "lake view" home sites, along with 37 other home sites, 20 cabins and 21 golf casitas.

According to the master plan, two golf greens and a dozen homes would sit just a few hundred feet across Housman's southern fence line.

Concerned with the density and scope of the project, Housman rejected Discovery's easement proposal. Now, he wants to warn the greater Lakeside community of what’s potentially on the horizon.

The luxury development, he said, would be for the exclusive benefit of a few at the expense of the town's current way of life.

"The character of Lakeside would change forever," Housman said.

THE SITE of the proposed development is currently owned by TAL & PGL LLC, which lists a Kalispell address, according to public property records. The Inter Lake was told that both the buyers and sellers are subject to a confidentiality agreement at this point in the transaction. A request for comment from Discovery Land Company officials was not returned.

TAL & PGL’s swath of parcels begins near U.S. 93 on the east flank and abuts Forest Service land to the west. A portion of the Lakeside airpark is on one of the parcels. A block of state land is adjacent to the south, along with an assortment of private landowners. 

Officials at the Flathead County Planning Department confirmed that a pre-application discussion regarding the concept was held last fall, but formal documents had not been filed. While the proposed site is unzoned, any development plans would go through the county’s typical public review process. The newly formed Lakeside Community Council would also be involved.

Janie Lewer with the Upper West Shore Alliance says the local advocacy group is aware of the proposal.

“It’s a big topic within the community,” Lewer said during a phone interview last month. 

She said the Alliance wants to engage Lakeside residents to make sure they have a voice as the proposal pans out. Among the top concerns the group has already flagged is access to the remote site from the busy stretch of U.S. 93. 

Based on traffic studies for other projects, the Alliance calculates that a property with 300 home sites could produce approximately 3,000 trips a day, although that may be different for a resort development with employees and seasonal residents.

“That’s a precarious area of the highway with the elevation and curves,” Lewer said of U.S. 93 south of Lakeside.

Based on the masterplan, it’s unclear where the primary and secondary access points would be located. The map indicates that the development would provide access to Legacy Bike Park south of the site.

Lech Naumovich, representing the bike park, said they are aware of the development plans and have been contacted by the developer. He said the private road leading up to the bike park from U.S. 93 is a shared easement with a number of owners.

“The map indicates ‘access to bike park,’ but to be clear, this is a road easement that eventually leads to the park,” Naumovich said in an email to the Inter Lake. “It is not ‘access’ as much as it is a road leading to the bike park. No Legacy Bike Park land is included in this development. We are continuing to monitor the progress of this project and cooperate with all involved parties.”

He said that Legacy respects private property rights, and also believes in preserving the integrity of Lakeside and its landscape.

With prominent wildfire activity in the surrounding area over the last two summers, Housman is curious what the developers will present for a secondary emergency access that doesn’t lead directly back to U.S. 93, which he said would be problematic.

Aside from access, Lewer also worries about the impact on Lakeside’s infrastructure, schools and public safety resources. Currently, the all-volunteer Somers-Lakeside Fire Department serves the area.

“What are [the developers] going to contribute to the community?” Lewer questioned.

“What is the impact to infrastructure as a whole? The roads, the bank, the grocery store, and what that looks like for a development of this magnitude?”

A luxury development as proposed, she said, conflicts with local residents’ desires to protect Lakeside’s rural character. 

“Residents of Lakeside love Lakeside as it is today,” she said. “We’ve been fighting to have managed growth that’s positive.”

Housman raised the same questions and wondered how an exclusive development similar to the Yellowstone Club would affect the entire valley.

“The ramifications of a development of this magnitude (as proposed) will be far-reaching, affecting all current local residents in the Lakeside area and beyond in very substantive ways,” Housman warned. “Although it would affect my site the most, you can imagine the impact of something like this on the entire valley.”

FOUNDED IN 1994 by Mike Meldman, Discovery Land Company’s portfolio showcases 33 exclusive enclaves across the globe. The company owns developments and resorts in Montana, Idaho, California, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, New York, Nevada and Arizona, with international locations in Mexico, Canada, Portugal, Costa Rica, Scotland and the United Arab Emirates.

Aside from golfing, the communities hone in on outdoor pursuits, such as a man made surf wave at the Austin Surf Club in Texas, or the world’s only private ski resort at the Yellowstone Club.

In an interview on the Studio 22 podcast last year, Meldman described the company as “a recreational resort, lifestyle community.” 

In the podcast, Meldman said the Yellowstone Club ranks among his favorite projects to date. The club has 864 members and caters to a who’s who list of billionaires and celebrities. The club’s roster of members has reportedly included Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, as well as A-list celebrities like Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel.

Meldman estimated that some 2,000 workers are employed at Discovery's properties, including construction phases and ongoing operations. That figure might be doubled for Yellowstone Club, given its size, he said.

“It’s not only a big business, but a big employment base,” Meldman said on the podcast. “We’re in a lot of rural areas that need the economic stimulation.”

Meldman was among the group of investors involved in the private 300-lot Iron Horse development on 800 acres in Whitefish. The project was approved by Whitefish City Council in 1997 following two years of heated public comment. According to a 1999 Inter Lake story, Iron Horse was expected to have a $150 million economic impact on the valley while the developers would potentially pocket about $60 million at full build-out.

Lot prices at Iron Horse averaged $200,000 at the onset of the project in the late 1990s. Today, undeveloped lots inside Iron Horse are listed at prices over $1 million.

In a 2022 interview with Cultured, Meldman noted that Iron Horse was the first project to include Discovery’s Outdoor Pursuits program focused on outdoor recreation opportunities.

“My kids were with me there all the time and they became total mountaineers,” he said. “We were living full-time in San Francisco, but because of our time in Montana, not only could they play football and basketball, but they could also tie their own fishing flies, wakeboard, go whitewater rafting, ski, go into the wilderness with a backpack and camp out. That became an intrinsic aspect of the club — that we embraced the local activities and culture.”

Discovery Land Company continues to pursue projects in many stateside locations. 

According to a March 25 Steamboat Pilot article, the company has preliminary plans for a 700-home development on 6,400 acres near the popular Colorado ski town. That project would include private skiing access and a golf course, similar to Yellowstone Club.

At its new development along Lake Tahoe in California, the company riled locals in 2022 when it was revealed that Discovery had plans to privatize the public ski area that it owns as part of Homewood Mountain and Lake Club. The group Keep Homewood Public forcefully pushed back on that concept, and last winter Discovery scaled back its members-only plan.

    A gate separates Lakeside resident Glenn Housman's land at the end of Blacktail Heights Road from the site of a proposed luxury residential development and golf club. (Matt Baldwin/Daily Inter Lake)