Last Monday night council gave first reading to a bylaw that would see Cape Roger Curtis developed to the point that it would house almost one half as many people as the current population of Bowen Island. When I asked one councillor if this was some kind of clever trick to humble the would-be developer, he assured me that it was not. It is now down to haggling over the details.
For those of you who try not to follow these kinds of things here’s some background. Cape Roger Curtis is 618 acres at the southwest tip of the island. It is currently zoned for 58 ten-acre lots. Our Official Community Plan allows for the possibility that it could one day contain 225 lots. The proposed by-law would see it developed until it housed 295 detached homes, 209 multi-family units, 12 live/work spaces, 150-unit senior’s facility, an 80 room hotel, 10,000 sq. ft. of commercial space and all manner of community amenity spaces. To put this into perspective, we currently have 3600 people on an island of 13,000 acres. This development would add close to 1600 people on 300 of those acres.
The proposed by-law will be forwarded to the Island’s Trust and numerous municipal committees for comment. Then it will go to public hearing, just about the time that the municipal election campaign is in full swing. This is an issue that will really separate the moderate thinkers from the wing-nuts. It’s not hard to be fooled by politicians when they’re able to stay “on message” but a debate such as this is bound to bring out some deeply held but rarely voiced beliefs.
Things like “This is Bowen Island’s chance to take its place as a vital community within Metro Vancouver. The rapid increase in our population from 3,600 to over 5,000 will demonstrate our commitment to eco-density.” Or “We can be truly proud of our role in creating one of the most spectacular parks in the lower mainland. Tens of thousands of people annually will visit our eco-sensitive areas.” Or “Now BC Ferries will have to give us a bigger ferry. A two sailing wait every morning is simply unacceptable.”
So why would a proposal like this even be up for discussion? Because they have 600 acres and the 300 acres that they’re not turning into suburbia would become parkland. That’s the trade-off. We could have 160 people living on 600 acres with12 acres of park or we could have 1600 people living beside 300 acres of park. I know, you’re pretty sure that I’m not telling you something. The punch line is that we have a large, wonderful group of very concerned citizens who have worked for years to convince the developer to accept higher density on some of the land in exchange for a major park. Now that the plan is out we see that the land proposed for park is pretty much the areas that weren’t economic to develop anyway and the really beautiful spots have slipped back into the areas to be developed. One can only assume that the developers anticipate letting their arms be twisted into giving some of this land back but its too late now. The entire scheme has gone so far over the top that it has to be completely rejected with no thought to minor revisions.
It is not an overstatement to say that this will be a defining moment for Bowen. If even half of this project went ahead it would create more building lots than our present rate of growth could possibly accommodate. For the development to be successful Bowen would have to be marketed like a new ski resort or retirement community. The sheer number of workers, equipment and truckloads of concrete would overwhelm our roads and the ferry for the duration of the active construction. And that could be fifteen years.
As I try to think this through I keep asking myself why five of our councillors would even entertain this kind of insanity? My guess is that at least one, who doesn’t plan on running again, was hoping that this would come to a vote before the end of their mandate so that they could vote against it on their way out of the door. Others are presumably in favour of mainland style development and probably one or two think that the proposed park is an important legacy and they haven’t grasped or don’t care about the enormity of the rest of the proposal.
So what is going to happen when sanity returns? It will be back to square one. That conversation could go something like this. Bowen “You have every right to create 58 lots but we’d really like about 50 acres for a park. How about if we let you create an extra 2 lots for every ten acres that you give us?” Developer “That wouldn’t allow us to reach our profit projections but we might be able to give you 5 acres for 20 more units.” When the time comes we’ll sit down and talk. But first we have to get the current proposal filed in the archives with all of the other grand development plans that never got off the ground.
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