Nathan Liewicki

The City of Winnipeg's property and planning committee voted 3-1 against the sale of the John Blumberg Golf Course in Headingley on Monday afternoon, going against a public service recommendation.

Couns. Kevin Klein (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood),&nbsp;Janice Lukes&nbsp;(Waverley West) and&nbsp;Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) voted against the sale, while Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) backed the motion.

"There's no way this city can sustain itself with more population just five minutes outside the city that are using our services every day but not paying into those cities," Klein said prior to voting against the motion.

"I just can't bring myself to vote to sell this property," she said.

City council voted in 2013 to declare John Blumberg Golf Course and its 200 acres (roughly 80 hectares) of land surplus to the city's needs.

The grass is always greener on the side of the fence where there is less grass

To a cynic, the deterioration of John Blumberg golf course sounds like the pretext to its sale. But there is no plan to shoot the proverbial hippo — yet.

The Winnipeg Canoe Club Golf Course opened on Thursday as temperatures in Winnipeg were expected to reach 12 C.

Canoe Club early-season golf

An early spring day on the Winnipeg Canoe Club Golf Course, whose lease expires on April 30, 2019.

At the time, the city explored the possibility of selling off a total of 13 city-owned courses, but council only approved the eventual disposal of Blumberg.

Greg Stutsky&nbsp;has been golfing at Blumberg for over 30 years. After retiring, he purchased a membership at the golf course for the first time last year, teeing it up more than 100 times.

Stutsky&nbsp;says over the past five years the condition of the golf course has improved immensely under the guidance of course superintendent Brian Campbell, which would add to the "devastating" feeling if the city decides to sell the land.

The John Blumberg golf course is littered with gopher holes after the city ended it's management contract with Ben Smirnov before finding another operator to care for the course.

Blumberg gopher holes

"You can see more and more people are coming out there. I guess the word's been getting around that the greens are all fixed up and … on the weekends you can tell there's a lot more people out all the time," he said.

If the course is eventually sold, Stutsky says, he plans to join the Whispering Winds of Warren golf course.

Should Winnipeg take another swing at getting out of the golf business?

Economic development chair John Orlikow thinks it's time to talk about how many golf courses the City of Winnipeg owns.

The city's golf services agency was over $729,000 in the hole last year. 

hi-harbourview-golf-130513

The city's golf services agency was more than $729,000 in the hole last year. 

For sale by City of Winnipeg: Golf course with river views

The City of Winnipeg's property and planning department has laid the groundwork for the sale of the John Blumberg Golf Course in Headingly.

The city may sell the John Blumberg Golf Course.

John Blumberg Park Winnipeg

Most of the proceeds of the sale would be placed into an yet-to-be-established 'transformative fund,' a report says.

The sale of the Headingley property heads to council's executive policy committee and then must come before council. The sale requires the approval of a&nbsp;two-thirds majority of council.

The City of Winnipeg owns John Blumberg Golf Course even though it sits in Headingley, a separate municipality. Council voted to declare it surplus in 2013.

Winnipeg's property and planning committee votes against sale of John Blumberg Golf Course

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