BC’s oldest public golf course to get a major drainage upgrade

Langara Golf Course will be getting an upgrade this year, but not the one Mayor Gregor Robertson was hoping for.

The Vancouver Park Board voted Monday to go ahead with a $3-million drainage upgrade to the course.

“If we had delayed making a decision until later into the summer, there’s no way that that work could even possibly be done this year and meanwhile, we’ve got a land that’s subject to sogginess and the site would continue to degrade, so I don’t think that’s fair to golfers,” commissioner Sarah Kirby-Yung said.

When a report on the maintenance was delivered to Vancouver city council last March, the mayor decided to suddenly propose the conversion of the golf course into a public park.

READ MORE: Future of Langara Golf Course in question after mayor’s comments

But Kirby-Yung says that wasn’t mentioned in last night’s meeting, and it probably won’t be for a while.

“For the mayor to bring forward a motion and ask for response back in a couple months with a plan for how the site could be used is totally nonsensical.”

Kirby-Yung says that’s not part of the board’s agenda.

“Something that would be a long-term, and should be a very robust public consultation, that would take years. And Langara may not be the right course to have that discussion on. You don’t make policy on the fly.”

Meantime, Kirby-Yung says the money for the drainage upgrade will come out of the golf reserve fund that players pay into.