Jeff Potter, son of Mike Potter and now mayor of Victor, Idaho, takes one of the first swings in the field that would become part of Teton Springs.
Teton Springs
In 1989, Mike Potter and Tom Clinton formed Potter Clinton Development, Inc, in Jackson Hole. The blend of Mike’s planning expertise and Tom’s financial expertise led to the development of the Willowbrook and Tucker Ranch projects, two high-end residential neighborhoods adjacent to Teton Pines. In 1995, Bill Ward, one of the early home purchasers at Teton Pines, called Mike and suggested they meet with Bill Hastings and his son Eric Hastings, who was an assistant golf professional at Teton Pines at the time. Both were interested in creating a golf course on their farm property located south of Victor, Idaho, on the west side of the Tetons. The Hastings’ property was only 20 miles from Jackson Hole, but Bill’s old Ford Taurus could barely make it over Teton Pass. The two met with Bill and Cheryl Hastings and toured their farm, which was 160 acres of rolling pastoral cropland with the Teton Range and Taylor Mountain to the east and the Snake River Range to the south. The Big Hole Mountain Range lay to the west. The Hastings property was not big enough to accommodate a golf course and associated housing and support functions, so Mike suggested to Bill Hastings that some of the adjoining neighbors’ properties would also be needed to create adequate acreage. “Oh yes, that would be easy,” responded Bill Hastings, and so began the first of many meetings with adjoining neighbors. Five years later, 16 ISSUE 9 / 2016 / JHGOLFER.COM
the “easy” land acquisition from the five landowner families, all of whom were large family groups, several generations deep, and all with individual legal and accounting representation, was complete. The landowner group, including the Hastings family, Rammel family, 90 year-old Lorin Kearsly and the Winger family, all with pioneering roots to their properties, were actively involved in the vision of and planning for Teton Springs. The five properties assembled totaled 780 acres and created the self protected enclave configuration needed for a viable project. But would this isolated pastoral farmland location prove a viable resort community? In the late 1990s real estate values in Jackson Hole were very strong and some “spill over” second home purchases were occurring in Teton Valley, Idaho. The Teton Springs project was conceptualized as a self-contained, second-home resort enclave with golf and fly casting as the primary amenities, and with swim center/spa fitness, cross-country skiing, and tennis as secondary amenities – perfect for the Jackson Hole buyer, it was believed. Conservation and open space areas were created to protect three natural springs and small creeks emerging from the steep rock outcrops in the southern portion of the project. Likewise, Warm Creek, which flowed through the southwest portion of the project, was protected with a conservation/open space corridor, all of which protected these headwaters of the Teton River. More than 50 percent of the Teton Springs master plan included open
space to protect natural features, provide for trail corridors, and to accomplish the golf course. Teton Springs was the first ma jor planned unit development to be reviewed by Teton County, Idaho, and was approved in June 2000. This review and approval process took nearly two years, multiple public hearings and included diverse insights as the local community dealt with the prospect of its first ma jor second-home resort community. The approved project included the golf course, club amenities, support facilities and a diversity of 700 residential units and overnight accommodations. The 780-acre land acquisition closed in the fall of 2000 and the land transferred to Teton Springs, LLC group. The initial founding members of Teton Springs at that time included Bill Ward, owner of Soft Spikes, a highly successful golf footwear company, Jim Eden, a successful business executive and resident of Teton Pines who arranged for the land acquisition financing for Teton Springs, and Mike Potter, responsible for the land assembly, purchase options, project master planning, plan applications and governmental approvals for the project. “In looking back on the early history of Teton Springs, it is interesting how involved and complex the land acquisition process was and yet how that process bonded our development group very strongly with the Hastings family and their neighbors,” Potter recalled. They interviewed various national golf course design firms but ultimately stayed