A long-term lease on a private golf course that was approved by the city is still raising questions.

In April, council voted unanimously to extend the Royal Mayfair Golf Club’s lease until 2069.

The club’s lease was originally scheduled to expire in 2051, so they prepaid $870,000 to extend it for another 18 years.

As part of that extension, the club is supposed to allow non-members access to the golf course. The public is also supposed to have access to cross country skiing between December and March.

The agreement is modeled after a similar one the city has with the Highlands Golf Club, which allows public access to the court between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Monday to Friday.

The Mayfair amendment says 7.5 per cent of golf rounds must be played by non-members, but when a CTV employee called to book a tee time as a member of the public, he was told there was no public access.

A CTV News Edmonton reporter followed up several days later with the pro-shop and could not get a clear answer on the policy.

Michael Janz, from the group Friends of our Park, says the Mayfair isn’t operating in the spirit of the new agreement if they’re keeping the public off the course.

“Council has made the decision to renew the lease with very clear conditions that golf was supposed to be accessible like at Highlands, so we expect that should be available now,” Janz told CTV News Edmonton on Friday.

“We believe this is public land, and all of the public should have the opportunity to benefit from it.”

The city sent a written statement to CTV News on the lease on Friday.

“The City is finalizing a lease amending agreement with the Mayfair, which will extend the length of the lease and will revise some of the terms. We are not entering into a new lease agreement and the revisions will apply once the lease is executed.”

But Janz says the club isn’t playing fair if they’re holding out on public access.

“I think whether or not the deal has been inked, the spirit of the agreement has been made very clear by the mayor and councillors what their expectation was for the club.”

CTV News Edmonton has reached out to the Mayfair for comment.

With files from Jeremy Thompson