City council members made no commitment either way Monday night after hearing from a group fighting to keep the Pine Valley Golf Centre in its current location.
Those council members who commented following a presentation from Friends of Pine Valley all said they'll wait until a proposed neighbourhood plan for the area has been unveiled.
"Our time to make our decision isn't now, the time to make this decision is when the comprehensive neighbourhood plan comes back for the golf and curling club lands and at that time we'll sit down and decide what to do with it," Coun. Cameron Stolz said.
Coun. Brian Skakun came the closest to giving outright support.
"I personally would like to see Pine Valley stay where it is," he said. "There's been a lot of blood, sweat and tears go into that course."
His comments came after council was told that developing a new 18-hole par three at the neighbouring Prince George Golf Club site would cost about $2 million.
With the PGGC to move to a new home off Foothills Boulevard north of the Nechako River, a neighbourhood plan was developed for the club's existing site and the city-owned lands surrounding it.
As presented in May 2008, called for converting the neighbouring PGGC into a 18-hole, par-three course with pockets of townhouses and condominiums and for converting Pine Valley into varying mixtures of townhouses and condominiums, highway commercial and commercial.
But the plan was put on hold as the recession put into question the need for an auto mall near the corner of Highway 16 and Highway 97.
Supporters of keeping Pine Valley at its current site say it's a good place to start playing the game.
"Most folks that start to golf...they're intimidated to go out to course like the Prince George Golf Club and the driving range out there," Dave Hodges told council. "We feel we need a place where we can have the full gamut of instruction from the little kids right through to seniors who've just taken up golf."
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
