Vaughan historic golf course approved for 'family homes', bringing end to years of tension

Thestar.com
Dec. 7, 2021
Dina Al-Shibeeb

The application by Clubhouse Development Inc. has been approved on Nov. 30 by Vaughan council after at least four years of “passionate” pleas by some residents to stop an infill project on a golf course.

The application, which dates back as far as 2017, was previously met with furious uproar from residents who rejected what they called a “massive infill” bid.

In 2017, a group called Keep Vaughan Green was formed in reaction to Clubhouse’s bid after it acquired the 290-acre Country Club golf course in the rolling hills of the Humber Valley in the same year.

KVG was also the catalyst in protests planned against the bid.

The application to rezone the property to a residential subdivision initially proposed about 475 detached houses, 124 townhouses and up 616 apartments, totalling 1,215 new homes. It was later changed to include 662 mostly detached homes after axing its bid to build apartments.

“They've completely gotten rid of the apartments, which will ease the traffic issue there. So I look at this development, and I welcome it,” said Coun. Rosanna DeFrancesca, who compared the application to other bids where developers eye to cram the “same amount of units” in a much smaller 10 acres.

“It's about family homes, detached and towns, not intensification,” she added.

DeFrancesca and other Vaughan councillors lent their support to Clubhouse for its “patience” and listening to the residents without resorting to Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), unlike other developers who do so in hopes of trumping council and acquiescing residents who are seen as espousing a “Not in My Back Yard” or NIMBY ethos.

In addition, Richard Lorello, a municipal affairs activist from Vaughan who also worked as adviser to KVG, criticized council, and following the meeting, he tweeted: “The historic Board of Trade Golf Course is gone for development.”

“Unlike Oakville council who stood up for their residents, Vaughan council led by (Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua) @mbmayor chose to audition today for campaign contributions, praising the developer.”

In July, the Town of Oakville said that ClubLink withdrew its appeals to the OLT to demolish the Glen Abbey Golf Course and replace it with a high-density residential development of up to more than 3,000 homes.

Glen Abbey Golf Club -- a privately owned golf course in Oakville -- had hosted 30 Canadian Open Championships, more than any other course.

“I know that everybody's passionate about change, especially when you live there and you're raising your family there and it's close to your heart,” said DeFrancesca.

The councillor also told residents that elsewhere in Vaughan people are dealing with intensification. “What are we willing to accept moving forward if we're not willing to accept this development,” she said.

Coun. Sandra Racco added, “I will have to confirm that infill applications are always the toughest applications to deal with.”

Racco explained council “cannot stop infill application from coming forward because these are landowners that have the right to develop whatever that they have to the standard of what we can allow.”

The mayor, meanwhile, described how this development has “gone through a number of changes from its original form,” and has been “downscaled quite a bit.”

Bevilacqua wished that the residents who were involved in the process to see their fingerprints when the development comes into fruition.

“We need to express our gratitude to the citizens as well as the proponent for coming to a place where all the issues have been addressed,” said Bevilacqua.

Clubhouse representative Mark Flowers said the proposal is “bringing approximately two thirds of the property or roughly 200 acres of green space into public ownership.”

The bid had already received backing by city staff, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and York Region.