A battle is brewing over the future of the Langara Golf Course, which Vancouver's mayor has suggested might better serve the public as park space.

Gregor Robertson raised the idea during a committee meeting Wednesday night where officials were gathered to discuss a draining issue at the course.

The problem renders the golf course virtually unplayable in the winter, but is expected to cost about $3 million to fix. Instead of moving ahead with repairs, Robertson said the city should consider turning the course into a park that could facilitate other sports.

"We have had a lot of requests for track and field facilities that adhere to international standards for competition," Robertson said. "We've had lots of requests for cricket and kabaddi in South Vancouver."

Robertson's motion calling on city staff to present different options for the golf course passed, but the opposition accused the mayor of blindsiding them with the proposal.

"It was really an inappropriate, undemocratic process that I saw tonight," councillor George Affleck said.

Though Robertson only suggested public uses for the land, Affleck suggested the city might be ultimately eyeing it for housing.

That concern was shared by some on the Vancouver Park Board, who said they weren't aware the motion was being presented on Wednesday.

"The last time the mayor brought this up, in 2012, he wanted to use [the course] for housing," commissioner Sarah Kirby-Yung of the Non-Partisan Association said.

"Our city is densifying. We have a lot of population coming in, especially in that area in the Cambie Corridor. That means we need our greenspace more, and not less."

When the issue was raised six years ago, the city talked about limiting the course to nine holes and turning some of the land into park space for the surrounding property.

Robertson also said he was open to using some of the course to increase Vancouver's supply of affordable housing.

Langara is one of three public golf courses in the city, which together bring in about $10 million in annual revenue. The Langara course generates about a quarter of that, according to a city report.

“It’s been the worst performing of the three big golf courses,” Robertson said at Wednesday’s meeting.

The mayor declined to comment on the story Thursday for CTV News.

If the converted golf course were to include playing fields, that would benefit neighbouring Langara College, which doesn’t currently have a field for sports.

The existing course does currently have a walking trail around the edge that’s used by non-golfers.

With files from CTV Vancouver's Nafeesa Karim and Breanna Karstens-Smith