LANGARA’S FOUR LAYOUTS.
Since it’s opening in 1926 the Langara property has undergone four transformations
First 1927 – Original A. Vernon Macan design
Macan designed a public golf course for the Canadian Pacific Railway to rival any other public golf course in the Pacific Northwest. The golf course served the public golfer well. Also the course provided the CPR with a tidy profit over the years. After the Second Worlds War the CPR began to scrutinize their land holdings in Vancouver with the idea of increasing their profits and at the same time divesting themselves from being a landlord. The buzzwords in Vancouver were simple: “The City required new housing for the expanding population”. Clearly the CPR could see large profits from the sale of their vast tracts of land available in the Quilchena Golf course area, the Shaughnessy Heights Golf Course region on Oak Street, and the Langara Golf Course area.
The Quilchena Golf Course and the surrounding vacant lands became the first redevelopment project undertaken by Marathon Realty – the land development arm of the CPR. When Quilchena relocated in 1959 the Vancouver Parks Board provided a report indicating Vancouver would be short of public golf courses in the next decade. The Board attempted to replace the lose of the Hasting Park Golf Course with the purchase of Quilchena GC. But the Board moved too slowly. Very quickly after the Quilchena Club moved the CPR immediately began construction of the vast project that included Arbutus Village Shopping Mall, a park, and a school. Marathon immediately began selling development lots for apartments, townhouses, and single dwelling homes.
The CPR next moved to the development of the Shsughnessy Heights Golf Course area. Fortunately the City Council moved to save the area from total housing. The City first purchased land for the Eric Hamber School. From 1960 – 1965 The CPR allowed the Parks Board to operate an eleven-hole golf course. Nothing from the original course survived but today a small portion of the original golf course became housing. Van Deusen Gardens occupies the majority of the land.
With the loss of Hastings, Quilchena, and Shaughnessy, the Parks Board strongly lobbied to save Langara and to construct a public golf course on the McCleery farm. The McCleery course opened in 1959.
In September 1969 after two years of bitter negotiations the CPR agreed to sell 95 acres to the City of Vancouver for $3 million dollars. Twenty acres of the parcel became the Langara Community College campus. The Parks Board entered a working relationship with Marathon Reality to run the golf course. The Board established the Langara Golf Links Society to over see the day-to-day operation.
On May 1, 1970 the revamped Langara golf course opened. James Izatt managed to revamp the old layout for the sum of $80,000. “Using some existing fairways and building he constructed three new greens for the first, second, eighth, and ninth holes. The new first hole will be 375 yards over the site of the present prop shop, a dogleg to the south. The second hole par 5 and 528 yards will use part of the old 12th and the third fairways and is another dogleg onto a new trap encircled green. The third will be short hole, 150 yards using the existing third green. From there through the seventh the course is unchanged. The eighth has been lengthened and play is onto a new eighth green built near the College boundary. The ninth has two new tees and is a dogleg back to the clubhouse with a new green. A slice on this hole means the player has lost his ball to the City College.”
Players on the reconfigured course immediately noticed a better-maintained and landscaped design. The new professional Ray McInnally called for the elimination of the old mats, the installation of the old sand bunkers from Macan’s original design, an upgraded parking lot and expanded restaurant facilities.
However, The main problem still existed. How long would the CPR/Marathon Realty allow the land to be used as a public golf course. The profit for the company rested in the sale of lots for housing.
Using his real estate background Mayor Art Phillips finally managed to broker a deal with Marathon Really to save the Langara Golf Course. On November 30th, 1973 the City and the CPR signed an agreement where the CPR would receive $4.5 million for the remaining 66.12 acres of land occupied by the golf course. To save the course the Mayor planned to remove twenty-five acres from the northwest corner of the property bounded by 49th and Cambie. This parcel of land would be sold for townhouses to generate the $4.5 million. “The mayor said council is relying on city staff estimates in predicting all or most of the $4.5 million can be raised through the sale of sixty year leases. The density will be from 10 to 15 townhouses an acre – meaning 200 to 300 units for 800 to 900 persons. The City will demand cash for the leases paid in advance to generate the $4.5 million dollars.”
The removal of another twenty-five acres required the course to be revamped a second time. This layout remained in tact until the total new renovation began in 1993.
1993 – Entire new golf course designed by Tom McBroom
In 1991 the Vancouver Parks Board concluded they needed to update their three public golf courses – Langara, Fraserview, and McCleery in order to compete with the new public golf courses. In 1993 the Argyle report concluded the Great Vancouver region required 26 new public golf courses needed to be constructed over the next two decades to satisfy the demand. Clearly the old public golf courses owned by the Parks Board would not be able to compete with the new modern designs such as Morgan Creek and Northview.
In the spring of 1991 the Parks Board presented their first report on the existing problems at the three public golf courses. When Langara opened in 1926 it had the most up to date drainage and irrigation systems for the time period. Macan used the best soil and seed mixtures available, but he never anticipated 80,000 – 90,000 rounds of golf on the course annually.
In order to compete with the new modern design and construction methods Langara required changes in the following areas;
Improved conditions for growing turf on greens, tees, and fairways (i.e. Drainage, irrigation, sun exposure, larger tees and greens, and construction methods according to the 1990 USGA specifications.)
A regulation golf course layout that addresses the liability problems that were created with the compression of the course in the 1960’s and 1970’s. (i.e. the original layout utilized a counter-clockwise design creating problems with slices into the housing on the 10th tee and onto the walking path around the course.)
Lack of the ability to have alternate teeing areas
A new expanded and integrated clubhouse and pro shop
Lack of an architecturally designed putting and chipping green
Retention of the walking/jogging path with some re-routing to protect both golfers and walkers
Relocated service yard
Balanced tree removal to facilitate the growth of good turf.
Installation of a proper cart path to protect the course
Expanded parking lot.
Could Langara’s next renovation be its last? Presently the Langara golf course could be facing another challenge. Since the opening of the Canada Line from downtown Vancouver to Richmond/Airport, Cambie Street is undergoing a transformation from single-family homes to mult-dwelling units. The possibility exists the City of Vancouver will face the same challenge the CPR faced in the 1950’s and the 1960’s. Is the land along Cambie Street, presently used by the Langara Golf Course, to valuable to remain as a golf course?
Also the Langara campus presently has university status. Where will the university expand as its enrolment increases over the next decade? It appears the only possibility will be the area occupied by the golf course along Ontario Street.
Perhaps to save Langara forever the golf course maybe forced to reduce to a nine hole, challenging layout occupying the middle ground between Ontario and Cambie Streets.