A proposal to turn a century-old golf course in South Surrey into housing and a city park is not being well received by some local residents.
To move forward with the plan, the Hills at Portal Golf Club would have to be removed from B.C.’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).
The property’s owners bought it in 2021, at the time indicating they planned to keep it as a golf course.
That changed several weeks ago when the owners proposed at a public meeting to convert some of the land to housing.
“I would like this place to stay as is,” said local resident Troy Hogan.
“Thinking about my children and my children’s children, I feel like everything is getting developed and nothing is sacred anymore … we need to be careful about how much ALR land we are willing to give up for profit.”
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In exchange for developing two parcels of land into housing, the owners have proposed to hand over just over half of the current area occupied by the golf course to the city to be turned into a public park.
“Currently, only the ALR exclusion application is being brought forward for City Council’s consideration, at which point Council would refer it to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) with their comments,” the City of Surrey told Global News in a statement.
“Yeah it’s great they are giving a park, 100 per cent, but that’s optics and to look good to the city rather than they are really being philanthropic about it,” Hogan said.
“It feels like … the decision’s already been made, and that’s just a hard pill to swallow.”
Global News was unable to reach the property’s owner for comment.
If the ALC agreed to remove the property from the reserve, the matter would go back to Surrey council for zoning and community planning.
That process could take over a year.
The city said it intends to examine the initial application early next year.
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