No Decision Yet on New Golf Course Lands Plan

By 250 News

Image of what fully developed property might look like.

Prince George, B.C.- It has been  several years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the making, and the  final  development plan for the  Prince George Golf and Curling Club lands, is still not approved by  Prince George City Council.

The plan  was tweaked after  a public consultation round that  garnered comments calling for more park space, higher density housing, and  approval for the  retention of the Pine Valley Golf Course.

The plan  provides for the following:

Manager of Long Range Planning, Dan Milburn, says it is likely the first phase of  development would happen in the  driving range lands.  He says it will likely be at least 25 years before the site is  fully developed, however,  Milburn adds, the City has been working with a potential developer who "wants to be significantly more aggressive" in developing the properties.

The change in housing density means the area  can handle up to 1024 housing units, up from  the plan presented in June  which  proposed 963 units.

Councilor Cameron Stolz  has concerns about the housing capacity, especially since the plans for the downtown call for  Wood Residential Innovation housing in the  area  near the Crescents neighbourhood.  He says he would support strip  commercial development, but not the housing portion as it would compete with the efforts to develop housing  components downtown.

Councillor Munoz wanted  a minor change, making  certain an "auto mall"would not be included in the allowed  uses in the regional  commercial set for the  corner of  highway 16 and 97.

Council voted instead to postpone the decison until  staff have a chance to review the suggested changes and  the potential impacts of those changes.  Milburn says given the work already underway, the earliest this item could return is November 29th.

Kevin Bowman,the President of the Prince George Golf and Curling Club, had hoped the final decision  would come tonight, but that doesn't mean he is disappointed "No,it's just part of the process, we'll wait until the 29th and see where it goes from there."

 The lack of decision  tonight doesn't change anything for the Golf Club,  there is still an interested buyer, however, he had hoped  tonight would  see them moving forward "I did expect they would approve it tonight, but  at the same time, I wasn't  naieve enough to believe  there wouldn't be hiccups too."

In the meantime the plans for the new golf course  are on hold, there has been no new work on that project for two years,  and the Club is financially challenged as memberships are sliding.  "Our fees are competitive with other facilities in the province,  and in the region, and those  are what dictate what we can charge for our  product,  and at the end of the day we  need to have  the best product available and be  competitive and have  something that's marketable and attractive,  and right nw we don't have  that.  So we need resolution on this, one way or the other, so we can  develop a plan and move forward, soon." 

In May of this year,  the  Club indicated it had a buyer for the property.  A deposit had been  made, but  before closing the deal, a neighbourhood plan  had to be  developed. 

Bowman says in January of 2011 it will be six years since they received the first offer on the property.

The Club needs the funds from the sale of the lands before it can move forward with its plan to build a new  golf course  to the west of  Foothills Boulevard in  the area known as Harper Valley. 

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