The fight against development of a Kelowna golf course isn’t over

The saga to stop the development of the Kelowna Springs Golf Course isn’t over yet, and the opposition says it’s organized and ready to fight.

The development of the Kelowna Springs Golf Course has been controversial in recent years after Denciti Development Corp. bought the land with plans to develop it into an industrial park. Now with a new plan that was pitched as a compromise and a deal in the works to make it a reality, locals who want to see the course stay the way it is aren’t backing down.

Public outcry put a stop to the course’s development before, and people think they can do it again.

Alexandra Wright, a former BC Conservative candidate, is a farmer who lives right next to the course and she said locals are motivated to get the city to kill the tentative deal with the developer.

“We’re pretty organized this time,” she said. “There’s a network of us… we’re ready to fight and we’re not gonna back down.”

Wright said her land next to the course is likely to flood if the development goes through.

She said people who don’t live next to the course want to save it because it’s an important amenity and the city needs to preserve it because it’s a wetland that serves an ecological purpose.

“There is the bigger concern that everybody in Kelowna is feeling right now, which is that we are turning our city into one giant parking lot,” she said. “We’re taking away all of those things that attract young people to a community, attract tourists to a community. All we’re left with is Walmart and Costco.”

Beverley Kalmakoff is a founder of the Kelowna Tree Protectors and she said the same people who opposed the development plan in 2022 are back with even more fervour.

“This time maybe we have to make a lot more noise to say the people of Kelowna don’t want to see this particular part of the city turned into an industrial area,” she said.

Both Wright and Kalmakoff said since 2026 is an election year, they think the mayor and council will listen to people’s voices, especially since during the last municipal campaign, saving the course was an election issue, including a promise from the current mayor Tom Dyas.

“This is an election year and councillors are very aware of that,” Kalmakoff said. “I think council is gonna pay a little bit more attention to what the public is asking for.”

Wright said this is a case where the city is bending to the will of developers.

“We have to really start holding our councillors accountable,” Wright said. “The city is kowtowing to anybody who has money or perceived money to bring in and develop Kelowna and it’s always at the expense of the mom and pop, and the farmers and the families with young kids.”

The original plan for the course was rejected, but a new plan was released in later 2025 that is meant to strike a balance between industrial development and community amenities.

Denciti released a plan to keep a nine-hole golf course on the property and turn the rest of the land into a mix of industrial, open space and other recreation. The plan includes 35 acres of industrial park, a 12-court climate controlled pickleball dome and 10 acres of open space.

“This agreement secures Kelowna Springs Golf Course’s future as a distinctive nine-hole course with full-length holes, while preserving natural areas for the community,” the city’s director of partnerships Derek Edstrom said in a press release in November.  ”Kelowna Springs represents more than just a golf course — it’s a community asset.”

Denciti bought the golf course at 480 Penno Road back in 2022 — around the time the City of Kelowna changed the Official Community Plan land designation for that area under Mayor Colin Basran. Councillors approved the OCP but later said they weren’t aware of the change in designation and had it changed.

When Denciti announced its plan for the industrial park there was some outrage from local golfers.

The City of Kelowna received hundreds of pages of correspondence from people who wanted to preserve the golf course, so council ultimately decided to keep the zoning recreational so the development couldn’t move forward.

The deal is expected to be finalized on March 30 when the golf course land gets transferred to the city following the industrial rezoning of the developer’s portion of the course.