Residents question Highlands sale amid rapid growth concerns
Lakeside Companies' purchase of The Highlands Golf Course has raised zoning, traffic and tax questions at the 5600 E. Mullan Ave. site in Post Falls.
Lakeside Companies’ purchase of The Highlands Golf Course in Post Falls has put a familiar stretch of East Mullan Avenue back at the center of Kootenai County’s growth debate. One local view of the deal said there are “a lot of under the table meetings and decisions” and that most of the public is unaware of what is happening behind the scenes.
The Highlands is not an empty parcel waiting for a name. The course’s own website says it was built in 1990, designed by Jim Krause and plays 6,455 yards from the back tees at 5600 E. Mullan Ave., Post Falls, ID 83854. Its 2026 rate page still lists it as an 18-hole public golf course, which makes any sale or redevelopment discussion especially consequential for nearby homeowners watching land values, traffic and neighborhood density.
The property has been in redevelopment conversations before. A July 8, 1995, Spokane Spokesman-Review story said The Highlands Golf Course and Country Club could become home to 40 condominiums if two developers’ plans were approved. That same story identified Robert Coles as the builder of the golf course and the upscale neighborhood around it. A Feb. 26, 1997, Spokane Journal of Business story later said Kirk Hill bought the Highlands Country Club through Highlands Golf Course LLC and planned to change the course name to Highlands Golf Course.
Attention to the site sharpened again after the Coeur d’Alene Press said on July 4, 2026, that Lakeside Companies had recently announced the acquisition of The Highlands Golf Course in Post Falls. A July 8 item called Lakeside “a big player in North Idaho and Eastern Washington (and beyond too),” a line that helps explain why the purchase drew immediate notice beyond golf circles. The Coeur d’Alene Regional Chamber also announced the acquisition in a release of its own.
What residents want next is concrete: zoning, density, traffic, water use and what the sale could mean for property taxes and nearby roads. Those questions sit alongside a broader planning effort now underway, with Kootenai County and the cities of Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, Post Falls and Rathdrum updating their Areas of Impact. Idaho law requires cities and counties to review and establish those boundaries by Dec. 31, which puts any future Highlands plan into a larger corridor-wide decision that will shape how fast the Post Falls-Hayden edge continues to change.
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