The Meadow Lakes Golf & Country Club is up for sale for $1.6 million.

Owner Jeff Luehmann said today he’s selling because he’s tired of competing against government and public money used to support the Mountain View Golf Club.

“It is just that simple,” Luehmann told the Star. “I am not going to compete with YTG anymore.”

Luehmann went head-to-head in the public with Mountain View and the Yukon government a couple of years ago after he learned the government paid $750,000 to the non-profit golf club in February 2011 to buy back land it had leased to Mountain View in the first place.

Luehmann said he is selling the 20 hectares (50 acres) and the buildings, but not the equipment used to maintain the nine-hole golf course.

He emphasized he is not selling a golf course; he’s selling the land and buildings.

He would, however, certainly entertain offers to buy the equipment.

If and when the property sells, the Meadow Lakes golf course would cease to exist, even if the buyer was planning on continuing on with a golf course business, he said.

Asked about the possibility of turning the land into some sort of residential development, Luehmann said it would be extremely difficult – maybe not impossible, but extremely difficult.

He pointed out the land is currently zoned commercial-recreational, so an amendment to the Official Community Plan would be needed, which would require full public scrutiny and review.

There’s a creek running through the property which would require setbacks among other things if a residential development were proposed, he said.

Luehmann said perhaps it might be suitable for a modest development of country residential lots some day.

For now, though, he’s not going anywhere, and Meadow Lakes will continue on until the property is sold, he said.

Luehamm said he’s just had it with seeing public money going to his competition.

Grants from Lotteries Yukon may not be official Yukon government money, like the $750,000 to buy back the Mountain View land, but it is most certainly public money, he said.

He said he’s looked but can’t find another non-profit golf club in the country that receives public lottery money to compete against privately-owned clubs.

Meadow Lakes doesn’t have access to Lotteries Yukon money if it needs to buy a $10,000 piece of equipment, Luehmann pointed out.

He said Mountain View, furthermore, is using the $750,000 from the land deal to leverage more money from Lotteries Yukon.

“I have just had enough,” he said.