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Big development plans
for city-owned golf course |
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By Christina Toth - Staff reporter
Abbotsford Times posted on 05/13/2005 Townhouses may soon be scattered among the towering cedars along the edge of Ledgeview Golf and Country Club. The course itself may be redesigned and extended into the wooded slopes to the west and draw golfers from around the world. A request for expressions of interest is going out this month to see if there are developers keen to update the city-owned mountainside golf course, said Jay Teichroeb, Abbotsford's economic development officer. The project would be set up as a public-private partnership, like Chilliwack's new ice rink or Kelowna's stadium. "There may be a residential component, a commercial component, a new practising facility, a new driving range, a new clubhouse. The redevelopment would be creating a resort-like feel to it," Teichroeb said Wednesday. Expanded amenities would give local golfers a more challenging course and attract tourists as well, he said. Any redevelopment would have to be done without disrupting play on the links, he added. Townhouses could be built on the perimeter of a refurbished course, but how many units would be left to the marketplace to decide, said Teichroeb. The city also has close to 45 acres on parkland adjacent to the club's 139 acres on the west side that could be developed as part of a new course. "At least five holes of the present course would be redeveloped," he said. John Hambley, president of Ledgeview's board of directors, said plans are still in an "early brainstorming" stage, although the club has been looking at ways to improve for some time. "As the community grows, the demand for golfing grows, and the question is how to meet that need," he said Thursday. The golf course first opened in the early 1960s and had its clubhouse upgraded in the 1980s. |