A group of Dorval residents is heading to court to save the city's municipal golf course.
The links have been there for 90 years but the land is leased to the airport, and the airport wants the land back. The nine-hole course could be forced to shut down at the end of the year.
Lawyer Campbell Stuart is representing those fighting to keep the golf course in operation and says their legal options are numerous. He's planning to file an injunction to stop any development on the land in November.
“The fundamental argument is that Aeroport de Montreal is not exempt from the provincial laws or even federal environmental laws,” Stuart said.
The piece of land belongs to Transport Canada, and is leased to the Aeroports de Montreal administration, which in turn leases it to the Dorval municipal golf course.
The airport has yet to say what exactly it will do with the extra strip of green space, but it wants the land for an expansion project.
“It's so narrow here I don't know why they [would] take that, what's the use to take half of this?” said one woman, gesturing to the space.
Local activists even tried to take their fight to Ottawa without success. A coalition to save the golf course and its surrounding green space now wants to take the fight to court.
Dave Maloney, one of those activists, says the green space is even more valuable than the golf course itself.
“It acts as a buffer between this massive industrial area over here and the citizens of Dorval so we're very concerned about the green space more than the golf,” he said.
