Half of Kelowna Springs Golf Course could be preserved

The future land use for the popular Kelowna Springs Golf Course will revert away from industrial and back to a private recreational designation.

But that does not mean the 18-hole layout has been saved long term.

Denciti Development Corp., the new landowner behind the proposed large industrial park near Reid’s Corner has proposed what they’ve called a ‘win-win’ compromise in keeping a nine-hole course in future. There is no word on how long the current 18-hole layout will stay operational.

A public hearing Tuesday evening saw a packed house at city hall while over 400-pages of correspondence was also received, a record for any issue, according to city officials.

There were over four hours of sometimes emotional public comment, much of it against spoiling the green space.

When it was finally over, council voted overwhelmingly (8-1) to change an Official Community Plan (OCP) designation of the golf course land from industrial (decided by the previous council last year), back to private recreation as a way of preserving the popular green space.

The new owner had bought the land based on the industrial use designation.

Council can change OCP

However, councillors said the OCP is a moving, living document and could and should be amended when there is a public outcry about a piece of land, as has been the case with Kelowna Springs.

“Do it for the citizens who’ve asked you to do it,” Coun. Luke Stack said ahead of the vote at the end of the evening. “Do it for the trees, maybe to preserve green space, maybe to protect neighbouring wetlands and bird species, maybe to protect the surrounding farmlands, or to protect the flood plain… or offset climate change. But do it mostly for our city’s future.”

Apart from the need to preserve affordable golf, the community also raised fears about the course’s role as an important flood plain or ‘sponge’ and the dangers a development could pose to neighbouring properties if that was lost. Concerns were also raised about damage to wildlife.

The public hearing also heard from supporters of the industrial project, citing job creation and the millions of dollars in increased tax base it would bring, while noting the golf course, on private land, was never guaranteed to remain such an amenity in perpetuity. They also warned council about flip-flopping on OCP land use and how that could alarm the investment community.

9-hole split zoning proposal

At the start of the meeting, the owner and developer, formerly proposed splitting the golf course land and keeping half of it as a nine-hole course.

But Garry Fawley said that process of conversion from 18-holes to nine would need to happen in the next year so engineering planning can be done.

“Through open dialogue and constructive engagement, we will get to work on a rezoning application for the property that finds a balance between recreational use and Kelowna’s acute need for employment and industrial land,” Garry Fawley said in a statement Wednesday morning, following the public hearing.

Most city councillors conceded the company could indeed propose a zoning split in future but that was not the purpose of Tuesday's public hearing.

The company said a split of the land for a nine-hole layout would require at least a year of hydrology studies. Any future rezoning application would require another public hearing before council pondered any development permit.