Complaint about wood chip and slash piles leads to closure of Wondervu Disc Golf Course

Boulder County requires a special use permit, and the business has begun the process of obtaining one.

BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — A complaint about wood chip and slash piles led to the closure of a popular Boulder County disc golf course last month.

On Aug. 26, Boulder County ordered Wondervu Disc Golf Course to cease operations because it lacked the necessary permit.

Its owner, Daniel Ward, has begun the process of getting the course back into the good graces of the county’s land use code and again welcoming paying customers.

“Optimistic about opening,” Ward told 9NEWS. “I feel that recreation, and our particular mix of recreation, ties into the community’s goals very well.

“We both want the same thing, which is people being able to burn calories, hiking around and, you know, recreating around the Front Range and stuff like that.”

The course has existed for years on forested land in Coal Creek Canyon on the southern edge of Boulder County.

A complaint about the wood chip and slash piles on the property led to an inspection, said Rick Hackett, a spokesman for Boulder County Community Planning and Permitting.

In turn, that inspection led to the discovery that the disc golf course was being operated there as a business. Although it is on private property, it is in an area classified as a “forestry” district, Hackett said.

As a result, it is required to obtain a special use permit.

The county gave the business 10 days to cease operations, which it has done. However, it also aims to get the business into compliance, Hackett said.

The first step of that process is set for next week, when Ward is scheduled for a “pre-application” conference with county planning administrators. From there, the goal is to help him obtain the special use permit he needs and allow the business to reopen.