I leave you people alone for a couple of months and you make me want to rip my hair out. That’s not really true but things certainly have heated up since my last column. The Cape Roger Curtis people have re-presented their old development scheme and are still acting like we just don’t understand how wonderful it is. The community facilities people are certainly proving that they aren’t faint hearted. They’re asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars of seed money before they have a business plan to show how such a grand scheme can be financed or operated. Then we have the ABC people who are working very hard to shake things up. So, before I talk about how wonderful it is to return to such a loving caring community, let’s look at these items.
First of all let’s look at the Cape Roger Curtis fiasco. The developer was told in no uncertain terms that, while we might amend the existing bylaws which only allow for 58 houses on their land, there was no way that we were going to go very far beyond the Official Community Plan which might allow 250 houses. So they have come back with their proposal for 490 living units plus a 150,000 sq. ft. care facility, plus a hotel, plus a few other odds and ends. Those of you who were hoping for a timely and mutually advantageous solution to this impasse may have been a little overly optimistic. My bet is that we will have to settle in for a protracted negotiation and this will probably be a major issue in the next election.
The civic facilities proposal caught me a little off guard. I admire the proponents’ grit and fortitude. If I had been on that task force I may have gotten caught up in the excitement of the quality of the project. I may have shared a vision of community property helping to define a community and reflect a community’s values. I may have been convinced that we have enough wealthy people who would share our vision of a facility that would serve us well for generations. I may even have been swept along in an exuberant presentation of our vision to municipal council and the community at large. But I don’t think that I would have had the courage to ask for almost $300,000 in public funds for working drawings, a project manager and fund-raising seed money. On the one hand I admire their conviction, on the other I have to wonder if they’re maybe moving a little too fast for most Bowen Islanders. Of course they may see big bucks coming in from the sale of the community lands and just want to be first in line for them.
Then there’s the ABC citizens group trying to bring back accountability to local government. They couldn’t have wished for a better target than the funding request for the community hall. On the other side, the community facility proponents couldn’t have asked for a better antagonist to do battle with. The stage is set for this to be a lightning rod issue in the next election. It will be interesting to see how the various candidates position themselves on this one.
Returning from a trip always makes me realize how incredibly gifted we are to enjoy such a strong feeling of community. Sitting in cafes and watching the world go by is fun for a while but eventually it becomes lonely. The vignettes of daily life that you witness help you to appreciate how universal some rituals are but surveying the other observers makes you wonder how many people only get to watch.
From the time we hit the waiting room in Horseshoe Bay we ceased to be the observers and became the people living out those vignettes. There were old friends to talk to and news to get caught up on. It was so incredibly comfortable knowing that we were among our own. It wasn’t just the familiar faces, it was the little things like who was full of energy and who was showing signs of having had a tough day, who was totalling engrossed in what they were reading and who was really enjoying watching a baby try to walk. From the waiting room to the ferry to walking up the street in the Cove everything was familiar and inviting. At the end of a twenty-hour day I had returned from a strange land to my home and I revelled in it.
Putting it into a broader context, we live in what is now called a consensual community. Very few of us landed here by sheer chance. We chose this island because it contained a community that reflected our values. According to some of my holiday reading we could also be called a charismatic exurb. We are an example of the utopian communities of the future. Maybe a $10 million performing arts and recreation centre is just the sort of project we should be taking on.
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