Thank you to all of our supporters for attending the open house at Lakeside Golf Course last week August 24th. Now is the time for our community to come together to fight to keep all of our recreational space, including our golf course – once it’s gone, we can’t get it back!
In our opinion, this “open house” did not satisfy the public consultation requirement for the application for change of the Municipal Development Plan. There were many residents that were frustrated that they were unable to get answers to specific questions they had.
As expected, the Slokker’s proposed strategy to bulldoze the golf course for development brought nothing new to the table. The three (3) parcels of land on the development application are the same parcels that Lakeside Golf Course owners have been trying to develop for decades. Slokker’s bottom line and that of the ownership of Lakeside Golf Course would be the only winners in this financial venture.
The diminished recreational opportunities in our community will result in a great loss to all residents of Chestermere.
A year ago, Lakeside Greens Golf Course Preservation Society (Preservation Society) received a very similar proposal to review and provide feedback. Our mandate has always been to oppose any attempts to rezone a single blade of golf course grass. As a group we were prepared to evaluate and consider anything that would add value for all Chestermere residents without losing the community’s Championship length golf course.
It is our view that adding more residential development (over 500 units) to Chestermere, in the center of our City, does not provide any benefit to our community. In fact, it compounds existing problems with school overcrowding, traffic, noise and lack of appropriate infrastructure.
After receiving the suggested proposal, we gave it careful consideration, and responded to both the Mayor and Council outlining the challenges we felt that the proposal would face.
Again, in our opinion, it was clear that there would be little to no value to our community with the outlined destruction or amendment of the golf course. We requested a meeting to discuss our feedback and to obtain further clarity on the strategy presented in the proposal. There has been no such meeting to date.
Now that some details of the development strategy have been made public, the Preservation Society has retained legal representation and will be following their guidance. We appreciate all of the donations received from our supporters, but now it is time to further build our war chest to prepare for the battle ahead. To support this goal, we have set up a Go Fund Me Page to secure long term funding for the costs expected to be incurred to ensure our community protects our golf course for future generations.
Please donate by clicking here: https://gofund.me/aea18afa
We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available. The Preservation Society will be setting up an information session soon, so stay tuned for details.
Thank you again to all of our supporters and remember, as a group we have a voice – let’s make sure we stick together and do what’s right for our community. There is power in numbers!
Thank you,
~Lakeside Greens Golf Course Preservation Society
Rather than the opinion of those who stand to lose the most personally, it would help if you reported on what Slokker actually presented so the rest of us could form our own opinions.
I agree. The headline makes it sound like a news story about the development. ‘The Anchor’ used to be a newspaper, I thought. But this sounds more like a letter to the editor and shows Anchor’s bias and/or laziness.