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Kanata Lakes Golf Club Redevelopment | Proposed
Kanata Golf and Country Club could be bulldozed to make way for housing
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen Updated: December 14, 2018 Another golf course that weaves through a suburban Ottawa community may be bulldozed to make way for a major infill residential development. ClubLink confirmed Friday that it was partnering with Minto Communities and Richcraft Homes to redevelop Kanata Golf and Country Club with new homes. The trio is planning a community consultation beginning in early 2019. The golf course’s operating costs are rising and fewer golfers are teeing off during the season, ClubLink says, suggesting there could be “greater community benefit” in using the golf course for something else. ClubLink plans to continue operating the golf course during the consultation period, but its ultimate goal is to redevelop the entire golf course property, “incorporating an appropriate amount of green space.” Planning approval from city hall would be required to allow a major redevelopment of the golf course. It was only two weeks ago that Kanata North Coun. Jenna Sudds took office as a rookie councillor, and suddenly she has a difficult planning file on her hands. Sudds said she opposed any redevelopment of the golf course. “This is certainly a disappointment for our community. The golf course, the green space, is incredibly important, and it’s frustrating,” Sudds said Friday. Sudds said she only learned about the plans Thursday night and then immediately reached out to city staff. She was scheduled to meet with Mayor Jim Watson on Friday and she was reaching out to community associations. “This is going to elicit anger and emotions from our community,” Sudds predicted. Sudds was asking city staff for more details of a pre-amalgamation agreement signed by the former city of Kanata that protected the golf course from development. The 1981 deal between developer Campeau and the former city of Kanata protects the golf course as green space as part of what has become known as the “40 per cent agreement.” The agreement protects 40 per cent of land as green space in the Kanata Lakes community and gives the municipality an option to take over the land before the property owner applied for redevelopment. In a written statement, ClubLink’s senior vice-president of investments suggested a golf course had never been locked in as a land use. “The 40 per cent agreement that dates back more than 35 years has provisions to allow for redevelopment of the golf course lands,” Robert Visentin said. The City of Ottawa’s planning department didn’t have much to say about the agreement Friday because, staff said, no development application had yet been filed at city hall by the ClubLink/Minto/Richcraft group. The city would have taken over any pre-amalgamation agreements signed by the former municipalities. Sudds said she would be knocking on doors and having office hours over the weekend to gather feedback from residents. “I think it’s important for the community to know that I’m here. I’m working on this diligently,” Sudds said. Neil Thomson, president of the Kanata Beaverbrook Community Association, said the golf course and developers should be prepared for a fight with homeowners. “The pushback will be severe,” Thomson said. “This is a community that is going to stand up.” Thomson believes the 40 per cent agreement saves the community from development on the golf course. “There’s no way they can pull this without breaking an ironclad agreement,” Thomson said. The 18-hole Kanata Golf and Country Club opened in 1968 and was redesigned in 1990. ClubLink acquired the course in 1996. A similar scenario has been playing out in Barrhaven with Stonebridge Golf Club. The owner, Mattamy Homes, is eyeing a development that would swallow up a chunk of the golf course. Sensing controversy, the company withdrew its development application last summer and Jan Harder, the Barrhaven councillor who chairs the planning committee, vowed more public consultation. Stonebridge is similar to Kanata Golf and Country Club in that the golf course weaves through a residential community. Many residents purchased their homes after seeing lush fairway vistas from the backyards. ClubLink is the largest golf course operator in Canada. It’s the same company that owns one of the most high-profile courses in the country, Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville, Ont., which has hosted several Canadian golf championships and PGA Tour events. ClubLink also wants to redevelop that property. [email protected] twitter.com/JonathanWilling https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...-home-builders |
Hopefully that is what happens to all golf courses.
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The pushback on this will be huge especially for those who back on to the course. The 40% greenspace agreement will be front and centre. |
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40% greenspace seems pretty achievable in a suburban housing development. Hopefully as an added benefit it will scare people away from such developments in the future. |
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I live in Kanata Lakes but not on the golf course. It kind of makes me sad that a private golf course can't make it a go anymore in a neighbourhood like this. Just a sign of the times I guess. If we do lose the course I hope they leave enough of the straightaways and connections that people can continue to use it for x-country skiing. It's a really nice centrepiece for the community and, along with the Beaverpond (and surrounding trails), it is one major feature that make Kanata Lakes a great neighbourhood to live in. This will set an interesting precedent regardless of the outcome.
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In which case Paragraph 5 would apply and then development would seem to be able to proceed. But do the current owners (ClubLink) need to be able to prove first that no one else wants to buy it to operate it as a golf course? |
Could the City or, less likely, the NCC buy it and operate it as a park, recreational path and community centre? If the City doesn't rezone it, then it seems they could buy it off for relatively cheap.
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There appears to be a dandy corridor parallel to Weslock/Knudson that might make a great LRT route from Terry Fox to Carling and March - to meet up with the existing rail corridor. If the land is no longer to be used as a golf course, then the City should be in there looking at other possibilities before they are gone.
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City in 'driver's seat' on Kanata golf course future, Wilkinson says
Former Kanata mayor says 1980s agreements protect green space, if city willing to run golf course Kate Porter · CBC News Posted: Dec 18, 2018 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 3 hours ago https://i.cbc.ca/1.4947087.154481840...oogle-maps.jpg A legal agreement from the 1980s stands between ClubLink and its plans to put housing on the Kanata Golf and Country Club, and also gives the City of Ottawa clout to decide what happens, according to the former Kanata mayor who signed the document. ClubLink stunned residents and golfers Friday when it announced plans to redevelop the 70-hectare, 50-year-old course that weaves through the Beaverbrook and Kanata Lakes neighbourhoods. The owner's plans are only in the early stages, and ClubLink has yet to file any development application with the city. But residents are already sending hundreds of emails, building a financial war chest for any future legal or planning battles, and working with their new city councillor, Jenna Sudds. Marianne Wilkinson, who signed the 1981 legal agreement, believes it doesn't give ClubLink "a leg to stand on." Wilkinson was mayor of the former City of Kanata in 1981 when Campeau Corporation offered to protect 40 per cent of the future Kanata Lakes area as green space. She said she sat with a team from Campeau, negotiating late into the night to put that agreement in writing. To her, the agreement is clear: ClubLink can sell the course to another golf operator. If it can't find a buyer, it must convey the course to the city at no cost. If the city is unwilling to operate it as a golf course, only then can ClubLink redevelop it. "[The city] is in the driver's seat, as far as I'm concerned," said Wilkinson, who has been sharing her institutional memory with residents and her successor Sudds. Wilkinson also doesn't buy ClubLink's argument that Kanata needs more housing — there are 9,000 homes in the pipeline for Kanata North, she said. Residents in Kanata are also trying to make sense of ClubLink's announcement. Todd Fetterly, a golf club member whose home backs onto the fifth hole, doesn't buy the owner's argument that the club is dealing with fewer golfers and increased costs. "From what we were told at our [annual general meeting] in April, everything was great and Kanata was doing quite well," Fetterly said. When he bought his home, he was promised the course would never be redeveloped, but worries that might now depend on the City of Ottawa being willing to get back into the business of running a golf course. "There's the loophole," Fetterly said. "It's really going to be what the appetite of the city is." New councillor Jenna Sudds says she has heard those concerns and has asked the city's legal staff to go over a 1981 agreement and its later amendments to figure out what the City of Ottawa can do. She said she will push for the city to run the golf course, if it comes to that. "I think we have an obligation as a city to honour, not only the legal agreement as it stands, but the intent, and to understand that major life decisions have been made based on this agreement and our community has grown up around it and [relied] on it." Mayor Jim Watson will "be taking an informed position based on professional expert advice following this review" a spokesman with his office said in a statement Monday. "That said, Mayor Watson is very concerned about the loss of greenspace and will be working with Councillor Sudds to do what we can to preserve this greenspace," spokesman Mathieu Gravel wrote in an email. Just last Wednesday Watson said during a council meeting that he was pleased the city no longer owns Pineview Golf Course, because he said it's not a cost that should be in the city's budget. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ment-1.4949340 |
Didn’t the city just get out of the golf business a few years ago?
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'Part of our DNA': Kanata golf course redevelopment plan draws crowd of worried residents
Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen Updated: January 21, 2019 Close to 500 Kanata residents braved arctic conditions Monday night to get information and voice their concerns over proposed plans to redevelop the Kanata Golf and Country Club into new homes. The meeting, hosted at the John Mlacak Centre by Kanata North Coun. Jenna Sudds and featuring area community association presidents Neil Thomson and Lianne Zhou, served as a show of strength in the community, with calls to action and fundraising for whatever battles may lie ahead. As they entered the centre, attendees were greeted by a phalanx of people holding signs that read “Kanata Lives,” “Green not Greed,” “Greenspace Matters,” and “People Before Profit.” ClubLink, the largest golf course operator in Canada, announced on Dec. 14 that it planned, in partnership with Minto Communities and Richcraft Homes, to turn the golf course colloquially known as Kanata Lakes into a subdivision. So far, the company has made no official development proposal to the city. ClubLink, Minto and Richcraft representatives were not invited to Monday’s meeting. Any such plan, according to Sudds and others, would contravene the agreement signed in 1981 by the city of Kanata and the Campeau Corp, stipulating that 40 per cent of the development remain green space. The golf course currently makes up about 30 per cent of that green space, or roughly 12 per cent of the community. Additionally, Sudds said, the agreement indicates that the golf course remain so in perpetuity. If ClubLink decides to cease its golf operations there, the city can take it over at no cost and either run it itself, or get a third party to manage the course. Thomson, head of the Kanata Beaverbrook Community Association, said he was getting cheques “up the ying yang” from supporters. Resident Sue Cousineau said the proposal was “just awful.” “The green space for us is essential. It’s part of our health, it’s part of our physical activity, and we use it. The people in this community cherish that kind of thing, and it’s part of our DNA of living here.” Cousineau also wonders whether the roads and infrastructure could even handle. “Development has gone rampantly wild here.” According to Thomson, nine or 10 of the course’s current members have notified the city that they’d be willing to purchase the course, or manage it for the city, if necessary. But the course, he added, is much more than simply a golf facility to its surrounding community. “There was a 1985 amendment that says the public has full rights to it in the winter, as long as they respect and don’t damage it. There’s a very large skating pond that people play hockey on every day, and cross-country skiing. And in the 50 years that that green space has been there, people walk their dogs there in the evening, kids criss-cross it going to school.” Zhou, head of the Kanata Lakes Community Association, said, “We care about the green space, which is the heart of the community.” The meeting ended with a question-and-answer period, during which the public made clear its opposition to the development plan. One speaker, John Hunter, who has lived off the 18th fairway for 26 years, says the issue seems clear cut: “The city has the legal documents defining the use of this greenspace in perpetuity. Therefore the city has the right, and the responsibility, to enforce the adherence to this contract. “It’s up to the city to put a stop and say ‘No, you can’t do this. We have a contract. It’s in force. You signed it. You abide by it. The greenspace stays as is.” Another resident drew cheers and applause when he voiced his worry about property values should a development deal go through. “The day this was announced, our property values took a hit, and I think our taxes should now reflect that until this is resolved.” According to about 750 responses to a survey put out by Sudds, 95 per cent of residents oppose the development; 85 per cent use the green (or white) space in the winter; and 96 per cent were influenced by the green space when they moved in in the first place. [email protected] https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...ried-residents |
City would ask court to confirm agreement to protect Kanata golf course land
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen Updated: March 16, 2019 The City of Ottawa would ask the courts to make sure a legacy agreement to protect a Kanata golf course is ironclad, according to the city’s legal department. Kanata North Coun. Jenna Sudds on Friday posted on her website a much-anticipated letter from a city lawyer, confirming the city would stick up for the “40 per cent agreement” protecting green space in the Kanata Lakes area. The Kanata Golf and Country Club is considered part of that green space but the golf course owner, ClubLink, wants to let developers bulldoze the land for new homes. ClubLink says the Kanata golf course has seen its expenses grow and number of golfers drop. The golf company would partner with Minto Communities and Richcraft Homes in the development scheme, but they haven’t filed a development application at city hall. The golf company announced its controversial intention in December, striking fear into homeowners who paid premiums to live along the golf course. Residents immediately began to mobilize against ClubLink. The 40 per cent agreement dates back to 1981 and the old city of Kanata. The former municipality signed an agreement with Campeau Corp. to maintain 40 per cent of the development area in Kanata Lakes as green space. The deal, which the City of Ottawa assumed in the 2001 municipal amalgamation, gives the city the right to take over the golf course at no cost if the owner doesn’t want to continue running it. Only if the city doesn’t want to run the golf course can the owner apply to redevelop the land. The agreement puts the heat on city hall to prove it can honour public-private deals like the one signed by Kanata and Campeau. To make matters even more dicey for city hall, the city not long ago aimed to get out of the golf course business, ending its lease at Pine View Golf Course in the east end. The Pine View land is owned by the National Capital Commission. In the case of the Kanata golf course, if the city ended up taking over the golf course land, it would need to decide who would run the golf operations. The city hasn’t gone that far down the road yet. The city’s top planning lawyer, Tim Marc, wrote to ClubLink’s lawyer saying if the city received development applications for the golf course land, it would file a court application asking that ClubLink abide by the 40 per cent agreement. According to Sudds’ post on her website, the city wrote the letter after receiving external legal advice. Sudds also says she’s checking into reports from the community that equipment on the golf course is blocking people’s use of pathways, contrary to the 40 per cent agreement. ClubLink notified the community in January that workers would be surveying the land and taking ground samples. [email protected] twitter.com/JonathanWilling https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...lf-course-land |
First legal swing over Kanata golf course development plan will cost city at least $100,000
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen Updated: May 10, 2019 The city will initially spend between $100,000 and $150,000 to defend a legacy agreement protecting a Kanata golf course from development, but that could be just the beginning of the city’s financial hit if the courts see cracks in the contract. ClubLink, the owner of the golf course, is partnering with Minto Communities and Richcraft Homes to redevelop Kanata Golf and Country Club, prompting neighbours to appeal for backup from city hall. A 1981 agreement signed by the old city of Kanata and the developer and golf course owner at the time maintains 40 per cent of the land as green space in the Kanata Lakes area. The golf course is considered part of that green space. ClubLink purchased the golf course in 1996. The City of Ottawa assumes all legal agreements signed by pre-amalgamation municipalities, like Kanata. ClubLink hasn’t filed a development application at city hall but the company announced its plans last December. The city hired outside lawyers to review the “40 per cent agreement” and they determined that the deal is enforceable to this day. They also seem to know about the legal strategy being considered by ClubLink, which wants to turn the golf course into a residential subdivision. According to a memo sent to council by city solicitor and clerk Rick O’Connor, lawyers believe ClubLink will try using the Ontario Perpetuities Act to argue that it’s no longer shackled to the obligations in the land agreement since a 21-year period described in the law has passed. City staff believe the agreement is enforceable, based on the legal analysis by Borden Ladner Gervais. So, the city is filing an application at Superior Court to determine the rights of the city and ClubLink if ClubLink files a development application. The application could require a one or two-day hearing, the city says, but if there are major issues that need to be worked out, it could take much longer, eating up significant legal costs. The cost estimate of $100,000-$150,000 is based on no major issues identified by the court, O’Connor says in his memo. The city might get some of that back if it wins and the court awards costs; of course, it might have to pay ClubLink legal costs if the company wins. ClubLink is also locked in a legal battle with the Town of Oakville over the Jack Nicklaus-designed Glen Abbey Golf Club in southern Ontario. The company wants to turn the golf course into a residential subdivision. The Oakville Beaver has reported that the municipality has so far spent nearly $9 million in legal and consulting costs to protect Glen Abbey from development. The Oakville case has involved battles on heritage, bylaws and land-use appeals. In Ottawa, residents in the Kanata Lakes and Beaverbrook communities are leaning on the city to fight ClubLink’s development plans. Kanata North Coun. Jenna Sudds said the proposed redevelopment of the golf course is a legal issue, not a yet a planning issue. [email protected] twitter.com/JonathanWilling https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...t-least-100000 |
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If we're saving the golf course, then we're just encouraging sprawl without adding a the park (or "filter") as a carbon offset. |
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