“Cates Hill, I’d like to introduce you to the west side of Bowen Island. West Side, I’d like to introduce Cates Hill.” During the recent road repairs these two groups got more of each other than they bargained for. The residents of Cates Hill got an inkling of what it’s like to live on Adams Road and the Bowenians who had never driven through Cates Hill got a reminder of what modern suburban development, on the side of a steep hill, looks like. Now that all of you have these images in your mind let’s talk about Cape Roger Curtis and one other development proposal that is in play.
The imminent development of the Cape has been an issue for four years now. People who once took out full-page ads to denounce it now ask, “What’s happening with that anyway?” There’s a chance that it might actually become a real issue this fall. If you look at the Municipal Council website you’ll see that our planning department has approached council with “an ambitious timeline for a decision of this magnitude.” They have outlined a plan that would see a revised proposal from the developer for an Official Community Plan amendment and a rezoning approved before the end of this year. The idea seems to be that several members of council were desirous of dealing with the Roger Curtis rezoning during this term of office and the developers would like to facilitate them.
When I read this I was reminded of a comment made by one of my customers concerning local municipal decisions, “Not since Gandhi have I seen passive obstruction used so effectively to stop things from happening.” I don’t really think that there is any chance that the largest subdivision ever contemplated on Bowen can possibly be dealt with in four months but I do see the attempt to pull it off as a major election issue. Before the last election there was a concerted effort by the Cape Roger Curtis Trust Society to elect councillors who would push for a 300-acre park as part of any development proposal. Now it appears that the developers are offering not only a park but all kinds of other amenities as well. Every voter will do their own cost-benefit analysis and in many cases vote for the candidates that most closely agree with them.
A while back I wrote about how this is “the silly season”, the last few months before a municipal election when no developers in their right mind would submit a rezoning application. It appears that they are about to make a liar out of me or I’ll have predicted their mental state or their application will suddenly disappear from sight until after the new-year.
On the other side of this coin we have a much smaller development proposal for Miller Road. The idea is to subdivide a portion of the Abbeyfield site and the lower part of the Bowen Court property next door. The new parcels closest to Miller Road would be sold for townhouses and the money from the sale used to advance senior’s housing on the island. Bowen Court is a senior’s housing co-operative. The money obtained from selling their lower parking lot for six townhouses will allow them to pay down their mortgage and get on with some upgrades to their property. The income derived from selling the lower portion of the Abbeyfield lot for another 15 townhouses will give the Abbeyfield Society the financial bump that they need to turn their dream of building Abbeyfield House into a reality. For those of you who haven’t followed the Abbeyfield story, the plan is to build an assisted care facility with 8 studio apartments and 14 one-bedroom units. It would include an apartment for a house manager, a communal dining room and 12 non-subsidized rental apartments. The townhouse units created along Miller Road would not be social housing but they would be the first reasonably priced new homes created on Bowen in the last four or five years.
This project fits within the current Official Community Plan but requires rezoning, subdivision and access to the new sewer line that hasn’t been built yet. The rezoning application went before council in May. It has been greeted not only warmly but down right enthusiastically by council, staff and the various advisory committees. The approval process, which includes a public hearing and review by the Islands Trust, should just about be reaching council for final reading of the bylaw a few weeks before the next election. At the end of a term that saw not much more than a lot of studying they must feel quite relieved to be able to greet voters with something that resolves so many issues in a single stroke.
And the really good news is that the new people living on Miller Road will be able to get to the Cove without driving along Adams Road or through Cates Hill.
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