There was serious talk of relocating the Beach Grove Golf Club to another part of Tsawwassen in 1980.
A November article in the Optimist that year reported that the golf club was thinking of swapping its 110-acre site with a Block Brothers Realty owned 300-acre site located at the old Grauer Farm on the southeast corner of 56th Street and Highway 17.
Block Brothers wanted to develop the golf course into residential housing. At the time, the course was zoned residential, but designated recreation.
More than 400 members and the club executive attended an information meeting to discuss the concept before the club would formally approach the municipality.
If the swap went ahead, Beach Grove would have been able to expand its facilities from its 18-hole course to two, 18-hole courses.
A wide range of concerns were expressed by members at the meeting including future taxes. Some asked why bother moving at all.
The article also noted the golf club had grown with the community to where it had one of the largest and most active playing memberships in Western Canada.
According to a press release from the club, the move would solve a lot of problems but would bring difficulties of its own.
A local homeowner, who was not a member, wrote to city council opposed to the idea, saying replacing the beautiful landscape of the course with housing was “sheer madness.”
The swap never went ahead, but fast forward four decades and the golf club proposed another change aimed at helping its financial future.
In 2021, a proposed 20-unit townhouse development fronting the course went down to defeat following a public hearing.
Requiring an Official Community Plan amendment, rezoning and other approvals, including an amendment to the site’s land-use designation under Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy, the application was to subdivide a portion of 5847 12th Ave. and consolidate it with 5766 16th Ave.
The remaining property would have continued to be a part of the Beach Grove Golf Club.
The golf course would have sold the site to the developer if the application was successful.
The golf club wanted to use the proceeds from a successful application to erase a multi-million-dollar mortgage taken out years earlier and ensure the long-term financial outlook for the club.
