BELLINGHAM, Wash. – A project to turn a neglected property near Bellis Fair Mall into a disc golf course is underway.

Mikkel Hong is a member of the Whatcom Disc Golf Club.

He says he had a vision for the property between the Target store and Bakerview after witnessing incidents of shoplifting at the mall.

“I thought one day about three months ago, why don’t we do something on that land instead of having it sitting there as a place to unwrap stolen goods or to live and dump trash,” said Hong.

They contacted the company that owns the property and got an enthusiastic response.

The group has received some generous donations to help pay for insurance and other expenses.

And they began clean-up of the property last weekend.

“We cleaned up a ton of trash last Saturday. Just did kind of big heavy-duty trash pickup day and eliminated a lot of the hazards, picked up at lot of needles,” said Hong. “It was astounding how much we got.”

They are hosting another clean-up day this Saturday, March 25th, from 11 to 4.

Hong says they hope to have a soft grand opening of the course in mid-April.