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Sooke residents vote April 30 on whether to buy golf course

Residents of Sooke and the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area will go to the polls April 30 to say yes or no to a $1-million purchase of DeMamiel Creek Golf Course.
Golf course
DeMamiel Creek Gold Course

Residents of Sooke and the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area will go to the polls April 30 to say yes or no to a $1-million purchase of DeMamiel Creek Golf Course.

SEAPARC, the recreation complex funded by Sooke and Juan de Fuca and managed through the Capital Regional District, has an accepted offer on the 23-acre, par-3 golf course property, subject to approval by voters of a $750,000 borrowing bylaw.

“We’re buying it for future development for playing fields, but until that happens, we will look at operating it as a golf course if we can break even,” said Mike Hicks, Juan de Fuca director and chairman of SEAPARC.

“It’s a little far-sighted, but that’s the reason we’re buying it. We’re totally committed to saying this is for the future.”

The plan is to put down $250,000 and finance the $750,000 balance over 15 years at about 3.0 per cent interest through the Municipal Finance Authority.

The referendum asks voters to authorize the borrowing.

Sooke and Juan de Fuca fund SEAPARC on a split of about 75-25.

SEAPARC will be debt-free this year, and no tax increases are anticipated as a result of the borrowing, Hicks said.

“We will not be raising the taxes,” he said. “We going to absorb this into the taxes that they are already paying.”

The decision to buy the property was made early this year.

“I literally woke up thinking [that] with our Canadian dollar at 70 cents, an American or anyone, a foreigner, could come in and with about $650,000 US buy the heart of the fields in Sooke,” Hicks said.

“So I took it to our commission to discuss it and we all agreed we wanted to go take a crack at buying it for the future fields for the children of Sooke and Juan de Fuca.”

The property, at 6518 Throup Rd., is in the Agricultural Land Reserve near SEAPARC. The purchase includes golf course equipment and a five-bedroom, three-bath home.

“[The property] is beautifully manicured with a lake. It’s got a tremendous well, so it doesn’t have to use city water to do the watering,” Hicks said.

Sooke Coun. Rick Kasper, who sits on the SEAPARC commission, called the acquisition a long-term investment.

“But [in the short term], it’s very feasible for SEAPARC to run this as a golf facility with the current SEAPARC system without increasing any staff at their end to actually take care of the bookings and do that stuff.”

The purchase has the support of the Sooke Chamber of Commerce.

“We think it is a great opportunity for long-term growth for our town to be able to have expansion of services and to be able to maintain the leisure and outdoor-type lifestyle that we have here in Sooke,” chamber president Kerry Cavers said.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com