Kanata golf course development misses the mark: city report

Ottawa city staff are recommending against a proposal by the owner of the Kanata Golf and Country Club to create a new subdivision on the land.

According to a staff reportreleasedMonday,the proposed redevelopment is inconsistent with both municipal and provincial growth strategies.

It's the latest in a protractedfight between the club's owner, ClubLink,partners Minto Communities and Richcraft Homes, and the neighbouring community.

ClubLink and its partners submitted a proposal for the development in October 2019, despiteanagreement reached more than three decades earlier between the golf club's original owners and the former City of Kanata.

Called the Forty Percent Agreement, it requires 40 per cent of the total development area of the community to be open green space, including the site where the golf course currently sits.

That agreement is currently being fought in court.

• City ready to lawyer up to prevent golf course development
• Golf course owner takes 1st swing at Kanata redevelopment

The new development application proposesturning half the golf course into housing around 1,500 homes plus another 20 per cent for roads, six per cent for parks and 19 per cent for stormwater ponds or open spaces.

City staff layout a number of problems with the application, including unresolved questions aboutstormwater drainage.

They also deemed it doesn't conform with the look of the surrounding community, citinglot sizes andgrading plans.

Kanata North Coun. Jenna Suddssaid she was pleased that staff appear to have taken the community's concerns into account.

"We as a community have been saying now for almost two years that proposed setbacks aren't adequate,the grading plans are inconsistent," she said.

"It's nice to see that these elements that the community and myself have been saying [are problematic] are now being identified in the report."

• Kanata residents teed off over plan to swap golf course for housing

City staff said they received comments from more than800 members of the community opposed to the development.

CBC News reached out to the ClubLink for comment but has not yet heard back.The city's planning committee will vote on the report on Nov. 26.