Heritage Pointe residents are sounding the alarm on development of a driving range facility at their local golf course.
Wayne Barritt, president of the Ravine Drive Condominium Association, said area residents feel they were misled by golf course owner Barry Ehlert on his plans to open LaunchPad, a two-tiered driving range facility with kitchen and lounge areas and 40 hitting stalls. The facility would be open year-round to extend the golf season, and is proposed to close at 11 p.m.
He said they were told it would be a simple change, lowering the grade of the now-raised earth hitting platform down to the level of the receiving area for balls, with the addition of a two-storey structure that could have some heating, a small snack shack and some gathering space.
“We got a notice from the County that it was going to appear, but because in personal conversation I had with Barry in light of his letter that he sent out to all the residents, this was just a very minor thing, it wasn’t really going to affect anybody in any way,” said Barritt.
He said they hadn’t seen renderings of the facility that were presented to council at the Dec. 16, 2020 public hearing for a bylaw that would redesignate the land from agricultural district to recreational district with the golf course as a site specific use.
Residents took their concerns to County councillors, but he said they didn’t receive much by the way of feedback or guidance. Staff was a little more helpful, he said.
“We really needed somebody to explain the whole process a month ago and give us guidance,” said Barritt. “With our councillor having passed away, we didn’t really have a very good relationship with anybody and weren’t able to get one really established.”
During the Jan. 27 meeting, Coun. Delilah Miller assured residents they still have representation on council. The reason nobody could respond to inquiries after Dec. 16 is due to the procedural guidelines, which mandated councillors could not take new information into account outside of the public hearing when considering second and third readings of the land-use bylaw, which received first reading on Dec. 16.
“I want to assure you that you are represented by the remainder of council after the untimely passing of Coun. Spilak, and we are required to weigh in on other issues that pertain to the County as a whole,” said Miller. “We are looking after your best interests and we are all paying attention to what’s happening in Division 6.”
County proceeded with second and third readings of the land-use bylaw to redesignate the golf course lands from agricultural district to recreational district on Jan. 27.
“We were very disappointed in that,” said Barritt.
He said affected residents would have been more engaged and attended the December public hearing if they had been aware of what the LaunchPad development would entail.
Some neighbours had tuned into the hearing and expressed concern over traffic, noise, light and appearance, concerns which the applicants addressed by removing a proposed logo from the safety netting around the driving range, lowering the height of the nets, and separating stalls from the lounge and dining area.
Barritt said he had been unaware of those concessions made.
His group reached out to members of home-owners associations in the Heritage Pointe area and delivered 75 letters to the County office on Jan. 22.
Ultimately, he said they would like council to retract its readings of the land-use bylaw and go back to public hearing so more residents can speak up.
“They’ve had lots of information provided of what we disagree with and why,” he said. “We’re in the process of engaging legal counsel, and we’ll see where that might take us.”
There has not been any direct conversation with Ehlert to-date, he said, adding some middle ground could be found if they hash things out with all the details on the table.
Heather Hemingway, director of planning for the County, said the municipality did its due diligence in circulating residents within a half-mile outside the boundary of the application and advertising the hearing in the newspaper for two weeks.
“That does meet our requirements associated with notice for a public hearing,” said Hemingway. “We sent out I think over 800 letters.”
Ehlert was unavailable for comment prior to publication.
