Why are we concerned about the protection of golf courses?

After several years of toying with the idea, the owners of the Candiac golf course announced the sale of their land in 2019, turning the page on decades of activity that date back to the early days of the municipality, in 1957.

On the downside, golf no longer attracts enough followers to allow the club – which hosted LPGA golfers for the 1974 Peter Jackson Classic – to remain afloat.

The land of more than 52 hectares then found itself in the hands of Maison Candiac Group, with the idea of ​​developing a real estate project environment friendlybefore being sold to Boda Group, in December 2021. The City, in talks with the former owners, told itself deeply disappointed at the turn of events.

Fearing that owners would restrict access to this course, which has been frequented by area residents since the 1960s, citizens rallied, driven by the desire to see the golf course become a large nature park than another neighborhood. residential.

Elsewhere in CMM, residents have the same concerns as in Candiac. History is repeated in other municipalities, with some differences. From Beloeil to Rosemère, citizen organizations were formed to demand the preservation of these vast green spaces, made more necessary than ever by the climate crisis.

In the last municipal election, in October 2021, the vocation of many golf courses proved to be the seed of contention between elected officials, developers and citizens.

Although some municipalities want to preserve these lands, they feel they do not have all the latitude to act.

However, these gaps will contribute to increase our forest coverage, because we can reforest large parts of itunderline Catherine Vallée, Candiac resident and spokesperson for the Coalition of Golf Courses in Transition.

There, we build condos, but we don’t keep parks for peoplehe continued. However, we know that there are green spaces nearby [des résidents est] great[e] for physical and mental health!

The citizen is impatiently waiting for the interim regulatory regulation (ROI) ng CMMto be accepted on Thursday.

In the same way that we put a stopper, the ROIshould ensure that there is no major risk in the future of these golf courseswhile some are allowed lighting fixturesexplained Danielle Pilette, associate professor in the Department of Strategy, Social and Environmental Responsibility atUQAM.

The by-law will take effect until the next Metropolitan Land Use and Development Plan is adopted (PMAD), leaving time for 82 municipalities of CMM to decide the future of this large green space. The expiration of the current plan is scheduled for 2023.

As part of this plan, the municipalities of CMM set themselves the goal of having 17% surface area of ​​natural environments and 30% forest cover by 2031. By 2021, the latter is estimated at 20.9% – a rate that has hardly changed for 10 years.

To reach targets, golf courses must be part of the equation, according to the Coalition. Since 2010, 12 golf clubs have ended their activities in the territory CMM, or a field of five. Most of the land sold gave way to real estate projects.

However, Catherine Vallée is living up to her expectations regarding the adoption of ROI. His discussions with the executive committee’s president’s cabinet CMM and the Mayor of Montréal, Valérie Plante, led him to believe that the regulation would not have sufficient scope by not applying to all golf courses in its territory.

The Coalition wants the CMM extend this protection to all golf courses in the metropolitan area, the time to conduct environmental characterization studies on these courses.

The most important thing is that all golf courses on the urban perimeter – the denser population – are included in the ROI. Especially since developers will try to acquire these landsemphasizes his spokesman, who is particularly concerned about the future of the golf courses of Chambly, in Montérégie, and Meadowbrook, in Côte-Saint-Luc.

If the primary fear of the Coalition will come true, the door will be wide open for real estate development projects, according to Ms. Valley. We believe developers and municipalities will be able to interpret this limited protection as an “authorization” to build on golf courses that will not be included. in the agreement, the Coalition wrote in a letter addressed to CMM May 21.

” The function of a good interim control regulation is to apply the brake. Make sure you keep what you want to hide before it’s all too late. “

These lands are at high risk of becoming the subject of land speculation on the part of real estate developers, which will increase the price of excluded sites in settlement, predicts the Coalition of Golf Courses in Transition. If then a municipality wanted to buy this land to turn it into a park, the value of the property could be beyond its means, he warned.

Because of their rarity, these vacant lots are called increase in value, underlined Mrs. Pilette. And if freezing activities on a piece of land slows its development, the property will still see its price increase over time.

A reform of the expropriation law is being demanded

To repurchase golf courses, cities can draw up a reserve fund, fed by contributions for parks, playgrounds and natural spaces paid for by any entity wishing to undertake a residential project. However, it is not uncommon for cities to be faced with a price increase.

While it is possible for them to refuse to change zoning – without which developers cannot build residential buildings on a golf course – municipalities prefer to agree with the owners by mutual agreement and avoid the risk of being prosecuted for disguised expropriation.

The cases that went to court have been cautious in the cities, according to Ms. Valley.

Cities were taken, they could not fully decide their developmentsupports the spokesperson for the Coalition. However, they should expropriate the market value of the land, not the value of the owneras permitted by law, he said.

To resolve the dispute, it will take expropriation law with teethhe summarizes.

This law reform is somewhat the roots of the war, according to elected members of the CMM, who called on the Quebec Government to change it in the long run. During the Conference of the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ), in May, Prime Minister François Legault promised to revise the law in a “next mandate”.

If instead believe that cities already have a lot of power on real estate development projects, Danielle Pilette however has the same opinion: the Quebec Expropriation Act should be reviewed to better control the practice.

It is considered obsolete by all; city ​​as well as the owners, said the municipal management specialist. Along with the government, which considers that it pays, using the current formula, more than we would pay in other Canadian provinces or the United States.

Under the law, a municipality wishing to take over the owner of a golf course to develop this space as a park can impose a reserve for public purposes. Aside from renovations, it prohibits any construction or improvement on the site, while the City is planning the development of the territory.

That is why the Municipality can proceed on his own gel if he cares, explained Ms. Pilette. This blockageof a maximum of four years, may lead to a judicialization of the file if the owner considers that he was wrong.

” The law is outdated, as it has left the door open to many disputes, including missing business opportunities. “

A committee managed by the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation, which brings together representatives from the Ministère des Transports,UMQof the Quebec Federation of Municipalities, the City of Quebec and the City of Montreal, were formed to review the need to review the Expropriation Actsaid a spokesman for the office of the Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel. Reviews are ongoing.

Representatives of MTQ – the ministry responsible for applying the Expropriation Act – would also be interested to hear from the Coalition of Golf Courses in Transition, which they asked to make brief, according to Ms. Valley.

We are confident, we know there will be changes in the law, but it will take timesaidhe. And certainly in these months of gray areas a lot of things can happen, hence the importance [pour la CMM] to have good interim regulatory control.