There was serious talk of relocating Beach Grove Golf Club to another part of Tsawwassen in 1980.
A November article in the Delta Optimist that year reported that the golf club was thinking of swapping its 110-acre site with a Block Brothers Realty owned 300-acre site located at the old Grauer Farm on the southeast corner of 56th Street and Highway 17.
Block Brothers wanted to develop the golf course into residential housing. At the time, the course was zoned residential but designated recreation.
Over 400 members and executive of the club attended an information to discuss the concept before the club would formally approach the municipality.
If the swap went ahead, Beach Grove would have been able to expand its facilities from its 18-hole course to two 18-hole courses.
A wide range of concerns were expressed by members at the meeting including future taxes. Some asked why bother moving at all.
The article also noted the golf club had grown with the community to where it had one of the largest and most active playing memberships in Western Canada.
According to a press release from the club, the move would solve a lot of problems but would bring difficulties of its own.
A local homeowner, who was not a member, wrote to city council opposed to the idea, saying replacing the beautiful landscape of the course with housing was “sheer madness.”
The swap never went ahead, but fast forward four decades and the golf course could be undergoing a change aimed helping its financial picture.
Delta council held a workshop this summer to hear from the proponents behind an application to build a 22-unit townhouse development on land fronting the golf course.
The golf club is proposing to subdivide a portion of the course lands in the 5700-block of 16th Avenue for purchase and development by a developer, and the sale of the land is contingent on the townhouse application being approved.
The remainder of the property would continue to be a part of the golf course.
Noting there’s been a noticeable uptick in interest in golf and new memberships since COVID-19, golf club past president Larry Wobick explained they are currently carrying a $325,000 annual payment on a multi-million dollar mortgage taken out years earlier for needed upgrades, and how erasing that debt would ensure the long-term financial picture remains positive with good fiscal management.
The development site currently contains over 40 trees and pathways associated with the golf course and a “large majority” of the existing trees are proposed to be removed, but trees that would be removed are to be replaced at the course.
Applicant Dean Bauck the residential units would provide more housing variety for downsizers and retired empty nesters who don’t need a large home.
