Not sure if the city should be involved in the subdivision business, even though this one would be tied in with a golf course. There is a glut of developed subdivision land in the city already.
metalman.

I agree with you Metalman. :}

Well, the city is not involved as a partner. The city needs to approve what the developer is thinking of doing. To avoid conjestion and access problems, ensure that sufficient green space is allowed, ensure the water, sewer demands can be kept.

What should the city do about these costs. its a tough one, if they send the bill to PGGCC, they will probably fold. If they do send it in, what message are they sending out to other developers.

The best solution would be a new slate, for PGGCC, and any more costs involved will need to be 50% funded by PGGCC.

A long time ago, when the City did not have a planning department and all planning was contracted out the City was also very much in the subdivision business. In fact, when the subdivisions were ready, the lots were sold at auction and most were sold at more than the upset price. I bought such a lot. Eventually the well ran dry and lots were left unsold.

All the land west of the bypass was developed in that fashion - city developed, contracted out planning.

rich people using public money for personal entertainment

And then we will have one of our famous townhouse builders in town build homes that will fall apart in 5 years.

This is the very same Neighborhood Plan that the City Hall planners said would be finnished in 4 months.

They are over a year late and way over budget. No wonder they have to hire outside consultants.

Prince george would be in far better shape if the Prince george City Planners just "got out of the way!"

This whole PGGCC situation is a bloody mess.

1. The PGGCC is a society, and the Golf Club is a semi-private facility.

2. The Golf course has had a serious decline in members in the past 5 or more years. They have dropped from a capacity of 800 plus members with a 2 year waiting list, to 600 members and no waiting list.

3. The average age of the club members is about 60. It appears that membership will continue to decline for the forseeable future. Same thing applies to the curling club. There are very few new members joining.

4. The sale of the Golf course to the Pomeroy Group in 2006 fell through, and there have been nothing but problems ever since. The new course was to have been completed, and people golfing by the spring of 2009.

5. The Club bought the land for the new course for $1.5 Million and did some work on it until they ran out of money. There was very little work done in 2009.

6. The Club for all intents and purposes is broke, and will be lucky to survive 2010 unless something is done.

7. Even if a private group of business people buy the course for $15 Million it is debatable if this is sufficient money to build a new course, and clubhouse.

8. There is no reason to beleive that all of the 600 members of the present course will transfer to the new course, and even if they did, they would continue to have membership problems because of the age factor, and the fact that the City will build a 18 Hole par 3 course on the present PGGCC lands. This will keep a lot of people golfing at the present location.

9. The issue of the Curling Club members and what will happen to them has not been addressed. Under the original agreement with the Pomeroy Group they were allowed to stay at the present facilities until 2013, however that agreement is out the window.

10. Rumour has it that the City will take over the Golf Club, Restaurant, and Curling Club facilities and have them run by contractors, or some such arrangement.

11. If no one buys this property pretty soon, then there is a good chance that the Golf Club society will go broke. What happens then??? Does the property go the the Provincial Government. Seems to me under the Societies act that is what would happen.

12. This whole process is being held up by the City planners, and as a result the whole plan could go **bust**.

We need someone with some intestinal fortitude, and investigative reporting skills to look into this whole situation to see what the hell is going on.

It within the realm of possibility that the City could somehow or other buy this property from the Golf Society with taxpayers money, develop the par 3 on the property, and then sell off the property at the Pine Valley Golf course to recoup their money.

Palopu is right, it is a mess.

For instance, why did the PGGCC purchase and start developing the new golf course lands prior to inking a deal on the their sale of their current lands? Wouldn't anyone with some level of business sense (even common sense) ensure that they had the entire deal in the bag before investing millions on the development of a new site? What about a contingency plan in case the deal fell through? I don't get the sense they have any plan other than to flounder about and hope that a developer comes along to purchase the present lands. The whole thing reeks of terrible planning and decision making, potentially with disasterous results to the members of the club.

I don't really have a problem with the city planners getting involved, seeing as how that's what their role is. If the grand plan was to put up a huge car lot on the site and the people in the city said "no bloody way" to that rezoning proposal, while in the meantime the golf course forged ahead on the assumption that everything would just get rubber stamped, it's their own fault for not doing their due dilligence. They should have ensured that the redevlopment plan was approved by the city, THEN they should have sold the lands, THEN they should have started deveoping the new course. As it stands, they starting developing the new course first, before they even had an inked deal for their current lands or an approved plan in place in regards to what was going to be approved for that site. It's plain gooofy! Who's managing things for the PGGCC anyway?

It strikes me as the type of thing where people are way over their head in regards to what they can accomplish and perhaps some egos are getting in the way of being able to manage such a large scale project properly.

Couldn't have said it better myself NMG. Egos - you betcha, lack of business sense -yup and on and on