Image Credit: Lucide Visual
August 22, 2022 – 6:00 PM
The heated debate around the future use of a Kelowna golf course has ended with a tie vote at city council.
That means the determined effort to protect Kelowna Springs Golf Course as a green space, fueled by impassioned voices of golfers, has failed and it can now more easily be developed for industrial uses, as the owner wanted.
“Leaving this as industrial, we are actually increasing the value of this land, which hastens its demise as private recreational,” councilor Luke Stack said at the end of almost an hour of debate today, Aug. 22.
That doesn’t mean it’s going to become an industrial park any time soon, just that it will be easier to get city staff to support an industrial rezoning application if it’s made in the future.
When the city was drafting its growth plan for the next 20 years, the owner of the golf course approached staff, said the golf course was not likely to continue as such during the life of the plan and asked that it be designated for industrial uses instead .
City staff agreed and the plan was adopted last winter but Coun. Stack came forward earlier this year and asked that the designation be changed.
In July, he won a 4-3 vote to have it changed to private recreational
READ MORE: Battle over Kelowna golf course hot topic for municipal election
Councilor Gail Given, at that time, was away and councilor Brad Sieben had declared a conflict so had left the room.
Today, Coun. Given was back and cast the tying vote, arguing there’s a great need for not only industrial land in the city but “employment lands.”
The land shortage is putting pressure on land in the Agricultural Land Reserve as bylaw officers are repeatedly being forced to stop illegal industrial operations in those lands, she added.
Because it was a tie vote, the motion to change its future use failed, meaning it will remain with an industrial designation.
Joining Coun. Stack in arguing in favor of the environment and recreation were councilors Maxine DeHart, Charlie Hodge and Mohini Singh.
They cited a number of golfers who said it was one of the few flat and affordable courses in the city.
“That, in itself – that it’s affordable – may be its very undoing and may be the reason why, from the owner’s perspective, it may not have an economic case to be made long into the future,” Coun. Given said.
Councilor Loyal Wooldridge pointed to flaws in the argument that saving the golf course would be good for the environment.
“When we look at the environmental impact of golf courses, they are the most intensive users of water, aside from hayfields,” he said.
Kelowna Springs uses more than 13 million liters of water for irrigation each year, along with almost 10,000 pounds of synthetic fertilizer plus other chemicals, Coun. Wooldridge said.
“When we talk about environmental concerns golf courses, while they are green for sure, are not assets like parks that have trees and natural grasses growing in them,” he added.
Mayor Colin Basran pointed out that, if it’s developed as industrial land, environmentally sensitive areas, like the springs that give the course its name, will be protected.
When it’s redeveloped, it will generate $17 in development fees to the city and $2 million a year in tax revenue, easing the pressure to increase taxes, he said.
If the golf course is sold, it will still have to be rezoned and get various permits before it can be developed as an industrial site.
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