CEDAR FALLS - The city's Park and Recreation Commission has recommended closing the flood-prone Washington Park golf course for good.

Commission members voted unanimously Thursday to endorse a staff recommendation to cease golf operations at the nine-hole course, which has been closed since the Cedar River overwhelmed the fairways and greens in June.

Ward Stubbs, director of city human and leisure services, said Washington Park's future is expected to be considered by the City Council on Aug. 25.

"The decision is based on the increased frequency and intensity of the floods we've been seeing," Stubbs said. "But this is such a big decision that it needs to go through the City Council.

"It was a very difficult decision for staff and it didn't come easy for me professionally and personally," he added. "That course is really well liked by a number of people. But looking at the data and the numbers and costs involved, it just got to the place where we felt that financially it just couldn't make it."

The golf course had been closed several times in the past due to high waters. But record floods in June left the fairways covered with sand and ruined the pro shop and maintenance buildings.

Over the past two months, city officials have been discussing whether to abandon the course or spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair it. A public input meeting was held last week, where some golfers lobbied to retain the course because it is shorter than the 18-hole Pheasant Ridge golf course but longer than the nine-hole, par 3 Walter's Ridge links.

City leaders discussed closing Washington Park in the middle 1990s but bowed to public desires to keep it open.

But Stubbs noted much has changed in the golfing landscape.

Cedar Falls constructed Walter's Ridge and put forward tees at Pheasant Ridge to make it more playable for children, seniors and beginning golfers. New golf courses opened in Dike (Fox Ridge), Waverly (Centennial Oaks) and Waterloo (American Golf). And golf play is down in the area and across the country.

"The number of golf holes in a 20-mile radius (of Cedar Falls) is way over the national average per capita," Stubbs added.

Assuming City Council members choose to follow the recommendation and shut down the golf course, staff will be busy over the winter deciding how to reconfigure Washington Park as a riverfront public area.

"We also will be investigating using some of the resources slated to be put into Washington Park to make improvements at Pheasant and Walter's Ridge, maybe making them more desirable," Stubbs said.

Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.