No logical reason

j OPEN LINES

THERE MUST be days
when Don Davis feels like a
marathoner doomed (o slog
his way through a perpetual
swamp. a

~The well-known insurance"
agent has been the driving force
behind the proposed Northlands
Golf Course for five years. -
Reading the chronology of North

j Vancouver District Council's de-
liberations could inspire a new,
novel from Catch 22 author
Joseph Helier. |

It has been approved several
times. It has been postponed for
further study on more than one
occasion, It was once to be a Cen-
tennial project.

It gets stuffed through the wring-
er every municipal election,
and then delayed while a new
team asks its innocent questions.

Meanwhile, peripheral land g gets
chipped away for neighboring res-
idential, commercial and even
schoot development.

There have been so many public
meetings, petitions, studies and
surveys, it seems obvious that
council could use fewer engineers
and more psychiatrists. What's the
point?

_ In the past, the golf course got
mixed into various residential

designs. Then it got wrapped up
in the Parkgate Shopping Centre
plans, Road construction in-
tervened.

The rare critic worries about
trees being knocked down for
golf, but appears unconcerned
about the trees replaced by hous-
ing developments.

Our other favorite argument is
that golf courses should be avoid-
ed because of the fertilizer placed
on the grass.

The alternative to environmen-
tally hazardous golf courses is res-
idential development. We assume
new subdivisions would be free of
asphalt, monoxide, sewage and
the other deleterious aspects of
humian existence.

Just this past week, council
tabled other Seymour-area pro-
jects — a library, a gymnasium,
an ice rink and a school. More
study.

There are now rumblings of a
referendum. or a bylaw vote,

Don Davis asks how it was
possible to build an $8 million
wave pool (for an extremely .
limited number of people in the. .
Lynn Canyon area) without a
yore. Or a fancy new municipal

all.

Since 1989 there have been four
separate consultants’ studies into
the golf course.

The last one, by the Golfeorp
Consortium, cost $226,000. The
total spent on outside work has
been $275,000. District staff costs
have doubtless run into six
figures.

In Vancouver there is a huge
uproar going on because the city
wants to close its public courses
for reconstruction. The city public
courses are aniong the most utiliz-
ed in North America.

The growth of golf on a global
basis is the stuff of fantasy. It is
an explosion.

In the face of this, West Van-
couver offers only the nine holes
of beleaguered Gleneagles for
public use. {t takes hours to get
on (he tee, An exciting plan at
Cypress fizzled.

for Nort

Capilano is a prestigious private
course. With over $30,000 andthe
patience to wait five years,
membership is possible. ;

The two North Vancouvers have
been even more derelict in their
recreational planning. They have
nothing for the public.

The Seymour Golf Course —
less pricey than Capilano but still
select and expensive —- is allegedly
available Mondays and Fridays to
the public. We are told that tour-

“naments usually fill these days.

A conservative estimate in-
dicates that there are 20,000
golfers on the North Shore. It is
unlikely that more than 2,000 of
these are members of Greater
Vancouver private clubs.

The proposed 295-acre North-
lands development would be
equally divided between golf and

residential. Golf would cost slight-'

ly less than half of the $26 million
budget.

The studies indicate that the
course would deliver a handsome
annual profit, the only municipal
recreational activity that ever pays
its own way — anywhere.

Every study indicates a golf
course would inflate the property
values for miles around.

We moved into this neighbor-
hood over two years ago. Within
a year, | expect that our entire
community will be awarded hon-
orary engineering degrees. This is
the land of perpetual construction:
homes, roads, sewers, land-

Sunday, February 7, 1993 - North Shore News - 9

scaping, and all services.

Yet the column provides an op-
portunity to call attention to some
outstanding work.

It is apparent to the most un-
trained eye that the Seymour, In-
dian River and Deep Cove region
has been treated with a great deal
of love and respect.

Patiently and carefully, a
beautiful community is emerging;
red brick walkways meandering
through the woods; pleasing ocean
frontage, broad tree-lined boule-
vards and a careful housing mix.

Some day, North Vancouver
District civic officials will be
recognized for their talent.

At the current pace of devel-
opment, we are within a few de-
cades of completion.

Golf would be just another at-
traction.

The North Shore Public Golf
Course Society has 2,200 paid-up
members, It costs only $5 to join,
but the growing ‘number is a pow-
erful statement.

Golf course developments ev-
erywhere seem xo end up a subject
of controversy, as if the proposal
was to build an abattoir or a pig-
gery.

The emotion of the critics is
amazing. Fairways are green. The
public ones are open to

“everybody. The land is reserved in

perpetuity for future needs.
So why the opposition to golf?
The best guess is that the sheer
power of polf has overwhelmed

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hlands opposition

modern society. Non-players feel
left out. They resent the sport.
There is no other Jogical explana-
tion for the opposition.

Just as there is no logical ex-
planation for a succession of
North Vancouver councils.

Coun. Ernie Crist has been a
determined campaigner in favor of
the project. Coun, danice Harris
has been against.

These two, { understand.

Mayor Murray Dykeman and
the rest of them seem enveloped
by fog. They work hard to appear
to be on everyone’s side. This is
why we have studies and no ac-
tion.

1 would like to remind district
council of the aforemer:ioned
author, Joseph Heller, who wrote:
“Some men are born mediocre,
some men achieve mediocrity, and
some men have mediocrity thrust
upon them.”*

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