Develop Langara golf course land, advocate says

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is unimpressed with an idea from the Vancouver Park Board to turn a city-owned golf course into a park and wants to see the land developed instead.

Commissioner Aaron Jasper has drafted a motion that will be debated at the Park Board meeting next week.

Jasper wants the Board to take a more detailed look at what the city-owned golf course cost, what they make and whether the Langara Golf Course on Cambie Street could be converted into a park.

Jordan Bateman with the Taxpayers Federation says a better idea is to develop the land.

"If you even developed half of one of those courses, you’d probably generate enough revenue to hold taxes in line for probably another two or three years, or you could use that money for other infrastructure, things that people actually need and expect municipalities to provide," Bateman told CBC News Tuesday.

Different visions

But Jasper says he does not want to see the land developed.

He says that with Vancouver getting more crowded and with the increased density planned for areas along rapid transit routes, demand for park space will exceed supply.

"[Over] the next 20, 30, 40 years, the opportunities are slim in terms of providing a lot of green space."

Jasper wants to look at reducing the 18-hole Langara course to nine holes, or eliminating it all together as part of the plan to turn it into a park.

Bateman said that is a step in the wrong direction.

Just where Mayor Gregor Robertson and Vancouver City Council sit with the issue is not yet clear.