Prince George Golf and Curling Club (PGGCC) members have voted in favour of allowing the Prince George Tennis Club to set up shop next door to the clubhouse.
The move came 11 days after city council gave final reading to rezoning land along Highway 16, including the tennis club's current home at Recreation Place, for commercial use.
It's part of a plan to relocate the tennis club to a site northwest of the clubhouse, toward Pine Centre Mall, where eight new courts would be constructed and the existing clubhouse and curling facility would be upgraded for a total cost of $1.6 million.
The now-commercial land would be sold for a net gain of $2.5 million, once the relocation and upgrading costs are accounted for, according to a staff report.
The Prince George Playhouse will remain untouched.
PGGCC president Dan Martin and Prince George Tennis Club (PGTC) director Rob Prideaux welcomed the decision.
"We thought this through long and hard and looked at it in many different ways and it's a plus-plus for everybody," Martin said.
Those pluses include more traffic passing through the clubhouse and counter the perception that the PGGCC is a private club.
"It's a public facility and people need to know that," Martin said. "With bringing tennis here, they're going to actually know it is a public venue."
Pending completion of the land sale, which is expected to occur soon, the plan is to have the courts ready for play by next spring.
Prideaux sees a day when at least some of the courts will be closed in to allow for year-round play and not just for tennis but for pickleball and badminton.
"And if we had indoor tennis here, we'd be using the facilities more," Prideaux added.
Tennis club members unanimously approved the plan at their annual general meeting, Prideaux said.
A long list of improvements are in store for the clubhouse, the ice plant, the heating system, the change rooms, the viewing area for the curling rinks and the lounge area, all in time for the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
A plan to relocate the golf course to a site north of the Nechako River, as had been proposed after the pine beetle killed off about three-quarters of the course's trees, is now on hold, Martin confirmed.
Council had approved a plan for redeveloping the club's current home into a mixture of residential and commercial uses, but it has failed to attract a developer. What to do with the other property is still to be decided.
"We'll figure that out down the road," Martin said. "Right now, we're trying to focus on staying where we're at."
- The PGTC is hosting an open house this Saturday at its current home, 2633 Recreation Place, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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