The Bandon State Natural Area wasn't for sale when Mike Keiser came knocking.



But approached with an increasingly appealing offer from the Chicago-based developer, and pressure from Oregon's former governor John Kitzhaber, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has agreed to privatize 280 acres of the state's public coast so Keiser can turn it into a golf course.

Such a move is unprecedented in Oregon, where coastal land is so beloved the

state Legislature voted in 1967 to keep the shoreline public, and then bought additional acreage all along its 363 miles. The result is a network of more than 80 properties so popular they include seven of Oregon's 10 most-visited parks.

The deal would also be unprecedented in neighboring states. A survey by The Oregonian/OregonLive found California, Washington, Montana and Idaho all would have refused Keiser's request, or at least made it harder for him to gain approval.

Initially, Oregon's parks commissioners were unenthusiastic.



But over more than five years of negotiations, Keiser continually sweetened his offer and worked connections to get the governor and his staff involved - an unusual presence in Oregon State Parks land deals.

More on the deal

Keiser calls the deal a win for all involved: The state sheds the natural area land in exchange for more accessible property, Coos County gets jobs and he gets a golf course.

The deal highlights the conflict between preservation and development on Oregon's south coast, where unemployment rates of 7.6 percent in Coos County and 9.1 percent in Curry County are in the state's bottom third. Kitzhaber and his staff pushed the sale as part of his economic development initiative, arguing another golf course in Coos County would create badly needed jobs.

Multiple Bandon and Coos County officials added their support.

"This has been a long time coming, and I think it would be a wonderful thing for the local area," Bandon Mayor Mary Schamehorn said in an inteview.

In terms of monetary value, the deal also favors the state.

In exchange for the duneland at the southeastern third of Bandon State Natural Area, Keiser agreed to give Oregon State Parks two smaller coastal properties, plus split the cost of a third property and put up additional cash to control an invasive weed that's taking over the south coast. Another $2.5 million will go into an account to buy property in the future.

"We were able to get land with high environmental protection benefits, and I think we'll end up with property that's more accessible to people," said parks Commissioner Cal Mukumoto, who voted for the deal.

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Commission's 4-2 vote of approval has triggered public debate. Critics argue it fails to meet the department's standards for property transactions and question whether Kitzhaber's involvement spurred parks officials to pursue a deal with Keiser despite obstacles that could easily have derailed negotiations.

"A clear signal was given from the governor to the state parks department that this exchange needed to happen," said Cameron La Follette, executive director of the Oregon Coast Alliance. "Political influence is showing its face."

Emails obtained under public records law show heavy involvement by Kitzhaber and his staff in the negotiations. Kitzhaber and a top aide involved in the talks didn't respond to requests for comment.

Some opponents bristle at the decision to deal exclusively with Keiser's company, Bandon Biota LLC, rather than offering the land up for public bidding. Environmentalists say turning the land into a golf course will imperil sensitive plants and animals the parks department has taken pains to protect. And many worry the deal could set a dangerous precedent.

"It sends a message that if I have a lot of money, all I have to do is put it on the table and state parks is so desperate that they're going to trade away parks to get what it is I'm offering," said Bandon resident Diane Bilderback, who regularly walks the beach along the natural area.

The deal

If the sale goes through, Oregon State Parks will gain 219 acres of coastal land in exchange for the land Keiser wants, plus $2.5 million to buy more land in the future.

The properties moving into the parks system include a former Coos County park just south of Bandon State Natural Area, an eroding spit at the mouth of the Coquille River and an 11-acre cove in Lincoln County.

Keiser also has agreed to pay the parks department $300,000 to combat an invasive plant known as gorse - money that has already begun rolling in at a rate of $60,000 per year.

The spiny, fast-growing plant has choked out huge swaths of Oregon's coast, including much of Bandon State Natural Area. Gorse takes over sensitive ecosystems, making it hard for native species to thrive. When conditions are dry, gorse becomes highly flammable. Twice, gorse fires have burned Bandon to the ground, first in 1914 and again in 1936.

Keiser plans to remove the gorse, along with trees, dunegrass and other plants, from the property he's gaining. He'll plant fescue grass and sculpt the landscape with construction equipment, turning the rolling dunes into a golf course to join the seven already in play at Bandon Dunes, his luxury resort 14 miles up the road.

The dollar value of the incoming lands combined with the cash triples that of the outgoing parcel, which was valued at $1 million in 2014. But one of the three parcels coming into state ownership is eroding into the Coquille River. Another, the former Coos County park directly south of Bandon State Natural Area, is also infested with gorse.

Opponents argue the land Keiser is giving to the state fails to meet the department's land exchange policy, which stipulates that any land exchange must provide "an overwhelming public benefit to the park system, its visitors, and the citizens of Oregon."

They also question the state's decision to allow a golf course near an area the state has taken pains to protect from human impacts. The beach abutting Bandon State Natural Area is one of 16 snowy plover management areas in the state. After years of wrangling with the federal government over how to protect the threatened seabird, Oregon agreed to ban beachgoers from these areas during nesting season.

State wildlife biologists say without special precautions, a golf course at Bandon State Natural Area would imperil the plover by increasing beach traffic. The golf course is also expected to attract scavenger species that prey on plover eggs and young.

"Increasing human activity near a long, undisturbed beach where snowy plovers are known to nest is just bad policy," said La Follette, the Oregon Coast Alliance director.

Parks department spokesman Chris Havel said the agency has asked Bandon Biota to address those concerns by promising golf course visitors won't be able to see the beach while walking on the property's trails. They also want a fence to block trail users from accessing the beach.

Havel said the natural area's gorse problem makes it increasingly poor habitat, and the properties the state is getting out of the deal are also ecologically important. The county park property will expand the state's beachfront plover habitat, while Coho salmon and steelhead swim along the Coquille Spit land. The Lincoln County cove is part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

"We're getting property that's more useful, and that have better habitat," he said.

Keiser's vision

Keiser already owns five world-class courses plus a putting green and a practice course just north of Bandon, an agriculture, timber and fishing community with about 3,000 residents. His Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is one of the south coast's largest employers, with 550 people on the payroll.

The resort is pricey. An 18-hole tee time runs as much as $310 in the summer - out of reach for the blue-collar golfer.

That, Keiser says, is why he wants a piece of Bandon State Natural Area.

His plan for the land is Bandon Muni - a 27-hole course with coastal views, expertly designed greenways, affordable prices for the locals. Coos and Curry County residents would pay about $20 for a round at Bandon Muni, while out-of-staters would pay resort rates.

There will be no lodging at Bandon Muni.

"I've always felt a sadness that they approved this, allowed me to build it, but they never play it," he said.

Keiser says he'll employ as many as 200 local high-school students in a caddy training program, and dozens of them each year will win college scholarships paid for by Bandon Muni or the Western Golf Association's Evans Scholars Foundation.

Keiser's company, Bandon Biota, has to create a nonprofit to buy the land. Revenue from the new course will go to caddy scholarships and gorse control. Keiser expects to generate as much as $1 million each year to put toward those efforts.

But Keiser wants the new course to fit in with his broader vision for enhancing all of Bandon as an international golfing destination.

He already owns more than 200 acres adjacent to the state park, some of it on the duneland appropriate for the Scottish links-style golf he favors. It's enough land to support a course, but Keiser wants the parkland for its sea views.

He credits the stunning landscape at Bandon Dunes for the resort's success.

"The ocean is the thing that attracts," he said.

Kitzhaber gets involved

Keiser became interested in the parkland in 2006.

He bought surrounding cranberry bogs in hopes of using the water rights to irrigate the course, and acquired coastal properties as fodder for a trade with the parks department.

In September 2010, his staff came before the commission with a proposal: An even trade, by which Keiser gives the state 208 acres, and gets an equal piece of the natural area in return.

That wasn't enough to meet the standard laid out in the parks system's land exchange policy.

Commissioner Brad Chalfant had just led a charge to craft new language making it harder for developers to access state park land. Minutes before Keiser's team made their initial pitch, the parks board voted to initiate rulemaking on the new policy.

"I wanted myself and my fellow commissioners to agonize over these decisions," Chalfant said. "I don't want it to be easy."

For the purposes of the Bandon State Natural Area deal, commissioners signaled "overwhelming benefit" would need to come in the form of land, not money.

Public records show Keiser searched for ways to sweeten the deal. He also began lobbying the governor.

In an October 2011 letter to then-state parks director Tim Wood, Keiser informed Wood that he had recently met with Kitzhaber before listing the details of an agreement with parks.

"I intend this letter to serve as a memorandum of understanding," he wrote.

Item No. 1 on the conditions listed in the memo: Parks would begin working immediately on a land exchange agreement.

Kitzhaber and his advisers in repeated emails and meetings with state parks upper brass and Keiser's negotiators, re-emphasized their desire to see the deal go through. Brett Brownscombe, a former conservation director with The Freshwater Trust who had advocated for the deal before joining the governor's natural resources team in 2011, served as the main messenger.

"I'm hoping that the Commission and Department are sincere in trying to work something out here, instead of floating a balloon that is unlikely to be reached but satisfies the issue of floating something," Brownscombe wrote in September 2011 email to Wood.

Keiser met twice more with the governor, including a May 2013 meeting attended by top parks officials. Keiser said Kitzhaber appeared briefly, telling those assembled "I just want you to know that I want this to happen."

During the final meeting, Kitzhaber and his fiance, Cylvia Hayes, toured Bandon Dunes and flew over the natural area in a helicopter Keiser hired.

Keiser also donated $25,000 to Kitzhaber's 2014 campaign - a political reversal from 2010 when he threw money behind Republican Chris Dudley. The donation had nothing to do with Kitzhaber's role in the Bandon State Natural Area sale, Keiser said.

The commissioners knew Kitzhaber was a fan of Keiser's plan, but all said pressure from the governor didn't influence their vote. Likewise, Wood said the governor's support didn't influence parks staff who advised the commission.

"There was continuing pressure that Mr. Keiser used the governor's office to put on the department to keep the process moving, but that's not to say the process wouldn't have kept moving if Keiser hadn't put that pressure on," he said.

Selling state land

Although the parks department sometimes offloads unwanted property - say, allowing neighboring landowners to buy parcels that wouldn't make a good park - the agency has never considered shedding established parkland at a buyer's behest.

In neighboring states, such a deal would be more difficult. Washington's parks commission must vote unanimously to declare a park as surplus before a sale or exchange could be considered.

California, after declaring a surplus, would need to offer the property to state and then local agencies. If none wanted the land, the property would be open for public bidding.

Idaho and Montana also require public bidding before they can sell significant parkland to a private party.

"We're in the business of preserving and protecting," said Kelley DiPinto, the California parks department's acquisitions chief. "We really don't sell land for development because somebody's approached us."

Over the course of years of negotiating, Oregon officials identified multiple properties they believed would meet the parks board's approval.

"We needed to have some kind of iconic property that was part of this trade," Commission Chairman Jay Graves said.

None worked out.

In the end, the commission settled for cash. Keiser would meet the "outstanding benefit" standard by providing $2.5 million for the parks department to buy land at some date in the future.

Graves and Mukumoto both said the incoming cash made them feel free to use Oregon Lottery dollars to buy the Beltz Farm, a Tillamook County property that had been on the parks department's wish list for years. Keiser had tried to buy the property for parks, but the owner wouldn't work with him.

Chalfant and Commissioner Robin Risley cast the dissenting votes.

"I just felt it wasn't a total win-win thing there," Risley said. "Overwhelming means there's no question, and there were a lot of people concerned about this trade."

Wood, who retired as parks director before the board voted, said he felt comfortable with the deal when it included land. He's not sure whether he would have encouraged the commissioners to accept money instead.

It remains to be seen whether the agreement will stick.

The state must first get the federal government's permission to sell the land - a request certain to trigger a deep review of the potential environmental impacts of building a golf course there.

The Bureau of Land Management gave most of the Bandon State Natural Area to the state in 1968 as part of the push to build Oregon's coastal state parks system.

At the time, the federal agency's leaders wanted to make sure the land would stay in the public's hands. A clause in the deed warns that if Oregon ever tries to use the land as anything other than a public park, the bureau must take it back.

To get around the rule, the parks department will request a "change of use" from the bureau that would designate the area as outdoor recreation land, rather than parkland. Megan Harper, a bureau spokeswoman in Oregon, said the agency is awaiting the state's application.

--Kelly House

Phone: 503-221-8178

@Kelly_M_House

Khouse@oregonian.com