The Pine Valley golf course could remain viable if the city were to enter into a long-term private-public partnership with an outside operator, according to the group trying to keep the course open.
Don Chamberlain of the Friends of Pine Valley said engaging in a 10- or 20-year deal with a private company will give the club the stability it needs to succeed.
"The city abandoned Pine Valley in our opinion when they sold off the driving range," Chamberlain said. "People just left and didn't golf because they thought that they were shutting the course down."
He said that downward trend could be reversed if a driving range was brought back and the contract with the operator should also contain a clause that a certain percentage of revenue be redirected back into course improvements.
City council voted on Monday night to proceed with a report by city staff that will provide a roadmap for how the 40-acre property the course sits on could be sold and redeveloped as recommended in the core services review. The report is expected to include details like how to sever the current operating contract and how long it would take to sell the land. If it were re-zoned for commercial use, the city expects to reap upwards of $17 million from the sale.
Mayor Shari Green called Pine Valley "a gem in our community" but believes council will eventually decide to sell the course when it weighs the economic benefit.
"From my perspective golf is a sport that's not gaining in popularity, it's not growing, it's in decline," she said. "If people want their roads paved, they have to understand there might be some things council needs to choose that's going to generate some new revenue for us."
Coun. Cameron Stolz is also convinced the course should be sold because of the money that could be brought in by the land sale which could in turn be used to lower the city's debt servicing costs. Combined with the property taxes new businesses on the site would pay, Stolz said the net annual benefit to the city could be in the range of $500,000 a year.
With the Prince George Golf and Curling Club now planning to stay in its current location, Stolz no longer sees the need to preserve the green space at Pine Valley.
"It's unfortunate that at the time we made our decision [in 2010 to keep Pine Valley operating] that the Prince George Golf and Curling Club wasn't allowed to continue to develop and expand like they hoped to," Stolz said. "They didn't have that purchaser come through and purchase that land allowing them to develop a new course and allowing the Prince George Golf and Curling site to be developed as a new centre providing tax dollars to the city."
Monday's decision wasn't final -- council will have to make a final decision on the course after it receives and reviews the staff report.
In the meantime, the Friends of Pine Valley will continue to fight to keep the course they say allows people to play golf at an affordable price and give newcomers to the game a chance to play in a hazard-free setting. The course has also become a training ground for Special Olympians to learn the game.
Chamberlain said he believes there's strong support for the course in the community, but he's not sure how to rally them to the cause.
"I don't know how to motivate them to come out, we've tried and tried and we'll just continue to try," he said. "There's no use getting more petitions, because that's not going to sway council. What's going to sway council is how can they get some money to pay down their debts. Well, they shouldn't have had the debt in the first place."
