06-01-2020, 09:59 PM
(06-01-2020, 09:42 AM)danbrotherston Wrote:(06-01-2020, 08:03 AM)jgsz Wrote: Full disclosure: I have never played golf and have no intention of ever playing that game. As Mark Twain once said, "golf is a good walk spoiled."
I would go much further than ijmorlan and say that all golf courses within the city should become public parks. When Rockway (public) and Westmount (private) golf courses were established, they were on the edge of the city. And that is where they belong today. It just makes sense. Once a golf course is surrounded by the city they should be turned into parks for all to use. Can you imagine how awful KW would look like if Victoria Park and Waterloo Park were golf courses?
I doubt if turning golf courses into parks is on anyone's agenda but perhaps it is something we can think about.
I'm not sure there is any way the city could force this. Private property is private, the city can try to buy it, but it isn't going to be cheap, and spending that much money wouldn't necessarily be good either. AFAIK there is no way for the city to force a golf course to stop operating.
I do agree with that. But I believe that membership numbers at Westmount are trending down relatively quickly as younger people are less likely to play golf -- and if they, they'll want to play at a more modern course. So there may yet be an opportunity for the cities or the region to buy the land in the next few decades. The value of the land for single-family housing would be very high, but the current zoning won't allow that, so the transaction price would surely be more modest. If it happens, that is.