Homeowners whose properties back onto the Harvest Hills Golf Course say they were “blindsided” by the recent sale of the course to a Calgary home builder.

Previously owned by the Windmill Golf Group and touted as nine of the toughest holes in Alberta, Harvest Hills Golf Course has been sold to Cedarglen Homes for the purpose of residential housing development. Cedarglen has not yet submitted a rezoning application to the city and says there are no set plans yet as to what form the new housing development will take.

The news has sent shock waves through the north Calgary community of Harvest Hills, especially among residents who bought their homes specifically because of the scenic golf course views.

“For my wife and I, this was our dream home. We bought it for a certain reason,” said Stuart Cantrill, who said he heard about the sale last Thursday when he found a letter from Cedarglen stuffed into the side of his garage door. “Now we feel so blindsided ... The reality has not sunk in.”

“My heart just sank. I felt really sick,” said Mandy Young, who also received a letter from Cedarglen. “We have this nice, pristine, quiet golf course, with gorgeous mature trees and lots of different wildlife. So it’s a big shock.”

Chris Ollenberger — managing principal with QuantumPlace Developments Ltd., the company acting as development manager for the project — said Cedarglen has the ability to build single-family homes, duplexes, townhouses, and multi-family dwellings. He said the company will not make any decisions about the design of the Harvest Hills project until it hears from residents.

“We’re looking for this project to have community involvement from the start,” he said.

Ollenberger said city council has told developers it wants to see more densification within the existing boundaries of the city. Redeveloping the Harvest Hills Golf Course is one way to do that.

“With 38,000 people a year coming into Calgary, we really have to figure out different ways to house everybody,” Ollenberger said. “If it’s not sustainable or fiscally responsible — as council has indicated — to continue growing out, then we need to look at our in-stock inventory and say, ‘where can we densify?’ ”

Ward 3 Coun. Jim Stevenson said he doesn’t have a stance on the issue yet since so few details are known about the future development. But he said he hopes it’s true that residents will be given significant input into the project, adding he can understand why homeowners are concerned.

“If you have a house that backs onto a golf course, you kind of expect that the golf course is going to stay there,” Stevenson said.

Both Cantrill and Young say they are concerned about property values as well as the prospect of several years of construction noise in their neighbourhood. Young added the local school is already bursting at the seams and she’s not sure Harvest Hills has the infrastructure to handle the addition of hundreds of new residents.

However, she added she is also trying to be realistic.

“They (Cedarglen) have bought private land. They own it now, so I doubt we can stop the development,” she said. “It’s more about how it’s going to happen — can we convince them to leave some of the green space, to leave some of the mature trees?”

QuantumPlace will be hosting three drop-in sessions for neighbourhood residents at the Harvest Hills Golf Course Clubhouse this week. The sessions are scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 4 at 5 p.m.; Wednesday, Nov. 5 at noon; and Thursday, Nov. 6 at 5 p.m.

Ollenberger said the goal is to get a rezoning application before city council sometime in 2015. Community consultations are expected to take place throughout the rest of 2014 and into the new year. While the Harvest Hills Golf Course will open in the spring as scheduled, Ollenberger couldn’t say whether it will complete the season.

“That will just depend on how things go,” he said.

astephenson@calgaryherald.com