Mr Konstantinou faced angry questioning from residents concerned about the potential for the green space to be converted to housing or other commercial development.

One resident referred to the Konstantinou Group’s insistence in January 2014 that it didn’t plan to remove the golf course and make “a huge residential estate” and would keep it as predominantly an 18 hole championship golf course.

In response, Harry Konstantinou said the group was still likely to keep 18 holes, albeit in a smaller footprint. He pointed to other much smaller golf courses.

“We’re not coming here with a proposal and saying all this 88 hectares is going to go. The golf course is going to stay, it’s just going to stay in a smaller format. Yowani is 47 hectares, what’s wrong with that?”

He said the only decision that had been made was to shrink the golf course from 88 hectares to about 50 hectares.

“The feedback is from the golfers that they want 18 holes. It could be 13-14 holes on one side of the course and the remainder on the other side of the course. What we know is that it does need to shrink,” he said, referring to a section of the golf course that was best placed for redevelopment because of the sloping land, making it not visible from homes that lined the golf course and “not interrupting the views of, for example, the people on the 18th hole.”

Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, which has hosted the Australian Open seven times, has 18 holes on 49 hectares. Canberra's Fairbairn Golf Club also has 18 holes but on about 75 hectares while Royal Canberra Golf Club, in Yarralumla, is home to 27 holes on 54 hectares. Federal Golf Club in Red Hill has 18 holes on 86 hectares.

The group was losing $500,000 a year on the golf course and could not afford to keep losing money.

The golf course used 1.5 million litres of water a day in summer, and 300 million litres a year and could save $200,000 a year on water by shrinking the size.

“It’s a cost thing, we’re subsidising this golf course to the tune of $10,000 a week … This is a business. It needs money to move forward ... and that’s the decision we’ve made [that] one of the ways is for the course to be shorter which will still be competitive, and cost significantly less in water, in chemicals, in labour to look after it ...

“So it’s still predominantly a golf course. We’re talking over 60-70 per cent of it will be a golf course.”

He told residents to “remember that this is privately owned land”.

The Konstantinou group bought the golf course from the ACT government 12 years ago for $3 million. Mr Konstantinou said he had bought the golf course in an open tender, with “a straight purchase agreement” and “no contractual obligation” to do any particular work on the site.

“Twelve years down the track you may sit here and say it was a great deal ... I can’t change that,” he said.

It was a full commercial lease and not a concessional lease, he said.

The Konstantinou group has started community consultation, including a “people’s panel” for which people can apply and on which the group aims to get a cross-section of the community, including different age groups.

Residents also pushed Mr Konstantinou on whether he would return the land to the community if the consultation and the “people’s panel” wanted it kept as green space.

“You’re putting the cart before the horse,” one resident said. “You’re doing something here that you think is going to appease the residents and the good people of Gungahlin who live in and enjoy the facilities of a lovely green open space ... We bought in that residential area for that reason and we would like it to stay that way,” a comment that brought applause. “I don’t understand why you are bothering with this process.”

Another member of the community told Mr Konstantinou if he tried to rezone, he should “be ready for an incredible fight”.

Asked whether he would keep the golf course if the majority of the community wanted it kept that way, the company’s communications representative, Helen Leayr, asked how the questioner would define “majority”, and Mr Konstantinou said the biggest problem with the golf course was it lost money. The group was trying to get it to break even but had to think about the golf course and the future of golf in five, 10 or 15 years, he said.

“We have not cut any of the budget during this process, so we’re not trying the force the course to go bad ... It’s in immaculate condition,” he said “… If at the end of this process we’re still losing half a million dollars and no one wants the golf course to change, we assess it then.”