City of Kelowna eyes Michaelbrook golf course for future ball fields
Is growth good for Kelowna? Depends if you golf.
By 2040, the City of Kelowna plans to turn Michaelbrook Golf Course into a site for playing fields. It is the third course since 2016 to be considered for redevelopment.
The city adopted the proposal as part of its newly updated official community plan, which guides growth in Kelowna through to 2040.
"It's likely the application will be approved," said Michael McBurnie, a land use planner at the Agricultural Land Commission.
Neighbours to the course said the city had similar plans for their properties in 2020, but that the neighbourhood got together and successfully challenged the city.
According to Lorna Wilson, a pro-shop employee at Michaelbrook, about 200 to 400 people play the golf course per day during golf season. Some do not like the city's plan.
"I think that's mighty disappointing," said Brian Wright, who said he has played the course for over 40 years. "And a real colossal insult to people who pay taxes and play golf."
He said that courses like Michaelbrook are important to the golfing community.
"This is perfect for seniors, because it's not long, and it's flat," he said. "These are the types of courses that are disappearing, and it's going to discourage seniors and juniors from playing. I think that's really short sighted."
City of Kelowna official community plan project planner Robert Miles said interest in golf is on the decline. "Across North America, a lot of golf courses wind up and shut down," he said.
The city's plan for the property instead, by 2040, is to help meet demand for playing fields in Kelowna. It proposes to change Michaelbrook’s property, maximizing the area for fields. In the change, Michaelbrook would lose land on four holes.
Last June the ALC endorsed this plan, allowing the city to move forward with an application.
“The next step, at some point in the future, would be for the city to proceed with changing the use from golf course to playing fields,” said McBurnie. “If it aligns with the endorsement, it’s highly likely the application would be approved.”
Michaelbrook co-owner Norman Parent confirmed the city is interested in purchasing Michaelbrook, but said he was unaware of any plan for playing fields.
Roughly seven months before the plan for Michaelbrook was endorsed, the city planned to develop private properties in the area, neighbours said.
According to Martin Weiss, who lives beside the course, he received a letter from the city in August 2020 stating the municipality planned to develop his land — and so did his neighbours.
The letter said that his property was chosen for its ability to meet growth needs, and that as part of Kelowna’s official community plan, the city intended to develop it as a public park by 2040.
Weiss said he was outraged.
“When they’re ready, when they feel like it, you know, they put the gun on you,” he said.
The letter explained the plan for Weiss’s property was part of the city’s response to an expected growth of 50,000 residents.
It read, “as the community grows, or when properties are listed for sale, they will be acquired at market value.”
Weiss’s neighbours, including Fiona Griffiths, said they did not plan on cooperating.
“A bunch of us got together to fight the city,” said Griffiths, who has lived on her property for over 40 years. She has declined city offers for her property for decades.
According to Griffiths, the neighbours obtained legal counsel and challenged the city. They overturned the plan within three to four months, she said.
The neighbours cited an ALC ruling from more than 20 years ago to defend their properties, according to Domenic Rampone, who serves on Kelowna’s Agricultural Advisory Committee.
He said the ruling they cited, from the year 2000, was that if the city built the Capital News Centre, it would agree that the land on which the neighbours now live would remain within the Agricultural Land Reserve.
"That was the crux of that," said Rampone.
But the city still expected rapid growth in Kelowna.
Roughly seven months later, a plan to use nextdoor Michaelbrook was endorsed by the ALC. The proposal has since been adopted as an official city plan, but is yet to be budgeted for.
The municipality’s 10-Year Capital Plan, going to the year 2030, instead budgets for developments at Glenmore Recreation, Parkinson Recreation, and Rutland Recreation parks.
According to Michaelbrook co-owner Parent, that is reason to believe the course will remain open for at least that eight year period until 2030.
It would cost Kelowna several million dollars to acquire Michaelbrook. The course sold for just over $6 million in 2021.
But the city has roughly $11 million per year budgeted for this purpose in its 10-Year Plan through its Development Cost Charge (DCC) Parkland Acquisition program.
The program raises money from developers when a development project increases the density of Kelowna. The money raised is then used by the city to buy parkland.
Roughly 88 per cent of funding for new parkland in the plan comes from development cost charges. For that reason, purchase of parkland such as Michaelbrook is closely tied to the development and growth of Kelowna.
As the plan reads, "the timing of DCC projects must coincide with the availability of DCC revenues. Should revenue not be realized due to slower growth, the timing of DCC projects may be adjusted."
More information about Kelowna’s plan for Michaelbrook will become available once it files an application to the ALC, and in December when it releases an update to its budget.
If an application is approved, a timeline for the project will appear in yearly budgets to expand and develop fields at Mission Recreation Park.
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Connor's note:
This story is a re-post for portfolio purposes, it was originally published in Castanet News in May of 2022.
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