Owners of a golf course established nearly 100 years ago in South Surrey are hoping to build homes where fairways and greens are currently featured.
They say the move would mean a nice, new manicured park for South Surrey that everyone can enjoy 鈥� not just golfers.
The Hills at Portal Golf Club, formerly known as Peace Portal, was purchased by Joe Haley and business partner Randy Bishop in October of 2021. Because the portion of the course they want to develop is within the Agricultural Land Reserve, they have made an application for an ALR exclusion for an approximately 20.5-hectare (50.65 acres) portion of the 150-acre golf course site for future residential development purposes.
A notice regarding the proposed ALR exclusion sent to residents in the area notes there is an open house on Thursday, Nov. 28, as well as a public information meeting with City of Surrey staff on the same day at the course.
When Bishop and Haley, who both live in the Hazelmere valley, first bought the course, they didn鈥檛 quite know what they were inheriting, as it was still during the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淚t was during COVID so it was really tough to get a look at what was behind the curtain鈥� it was all very new to us,鈥� Haley said.
They started to flip the nines around and made some improvements, but eventually, realized maintaining most of the land as a golf course might be untenable, especially when they discovered there was a lot of deferred maintenance on the course.
Bishop said the course鈥檚 previous owners, 鈥渁 bit of a fragmented ownership group of six different families,鈥� didn鈥檛 really ever have consensus to do improvements and maintenance.
鈥淚t kind of limped along for 40 or 50 years, so we started to really dig into it and understand what it meant in terms of maintenance and upkeep and bringing it up into modern times, and it became pretty quickly apparent that was a long shot,鈥� he said.
Because the course is situated on 14 parcels, or titles, currently zoned as farm estate lots, it allows them to give much of the course to the city as a gift, Bishop noted, should the proposal be approved. Approximately 40.3 hectares, or nearly 100 acres of the 150-acre site, would be granted to the city as park land, through a larger Official Community Plan amendment, rezoning and subdivision application.
鈥淚t would be one of the most historic and significant park dedications, certainly in our lifetime,鈥� Bishop said.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important for the community. It鈥檚 one thing to walk that property as a golfer, but to walk it or ride it and think of it as a park is unimaginable鈥� it鈥檚 a light, bright piece of land surrounded by rolling hills.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great venue to add to South Surrey,鈥� Haley said, adding they have heard positive feedback from nearby residents about having such park land nearby.
They understand some golfers may be upset with the change, if it goes ahead, but ultimately, Haley said, it comes down to 鈥淕olf for a few, or a park for all.鈥�
Right now, the first step is the ALR exclusion application, which will be brought forward for Surrey council鈥檚 consideration, at which point council will refer it to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) with their comments, an emailed statement attributed to the Surrey鈥檚 planning and development department said.
The ALC, not Surrey city council, will then either approve or deny the exclusion request, it added.
On Nov. 28, the course will host an open house from 1 to 7 p.m., with the public information meeting scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m., where city staff will be present to observe the meeting and answer any questions that attendees may have.
