Bowen Bulletin

The most important issue in our upcoming municipal election may not be what we stand to gain from the many candidates’ promises, but rather what we have to lose.

Bowen Island is an exceptional place to live.  Almost everyone agrees that we have a close, caring community set in a spectacular natural environment, still rural in character and different from other communities adjacent to metro Vancouver.

What’s made Bowen this way, while other near metro areas have developed into homogenized sprawl, is planning.  Both our own community planning and the regional planning embodied in the preserve and protect mandate of the Islands Trust.

Proposals to change this and introduce condos, apartments and general urbanization are not new.  Back in the 70’s there was an aggressively promoted proposal for over 3000 units of mixed housing on the old Union Steamships land (now Crippen Park).  The community rejected that, not without controversy, and instead adopted a slow growth Official Community Plan focusing on the preservation of a small rural community and a high degree of environmental protection.

Since the 70’s, the community has grown, following this planning philosophy, and essential community features have remained.  Thus, the Bowen community today – a highly desirable place for people to live, raise children, retire, connect with neighbours and nature, and escape the urbanization that characterizes all other areas on the fringe of metro Vancouver.  At  election time, its appropriate to ask, “can it last”?

Since we have had a municipality, the approach to planning has gradually changed. Municipalities are in place to accomplish goals, usually involving growth and greater services.   In this system, politicians seldom lead, they follow, guided by planners and bureaucrats schooled in urban thinking.  The result has been more and more reliance on urban solutions to Island issues.

Certainly, we have  problems to solve and  improvements to achieve.  However, the present direction of the municipality, led by urban planning staff, but largely followed by council, focuses on solving problems through development.  Ironically, municipal initiatives to achieve social and environmental goals may destroy the very community that they seek to serve. Some examples follow.

Sustainability and Climate Change – the municipality spent  thousands of dollars on a planning study ( Snug Cove Master Plan), that recommended 3 and 4 storey apartments throughout Snug Cove, introducing a couple of thousand apartment dwellers with their different needs and desires.  For a city neighbourhood, this probably makes a lot of sense, but in Snug Cove it is just urban sprawl with a fancy name.  Nor does the claim that these apartments would reduce our carbon footprint bear scrutiny – it would mean more people, who would drive cars and commute.  For those who say that commuting and depending on the city would diminish with the additional services that would come, one just has to look at traffic to the city from any one of the Fraser Valley communities, all of which have larger populations and a full suite of services.

Cape Roger Curtis – faced with the proposed development of the CRC property, with its huge recreational and environmental values, the municipality could have taken action to rezone the property and develop an appropriate plan to protect the public interest.  Instead, municipal planners “negotiated” with the developers to come up with a plan. The resultant proposal is so far beyond the OCP in both the intensity and nature of  development that one can only wonder what was being “negotiated”.

To add to these examples, we have the municipality’s approach to our OCP.  The OCP rejects urbanization and limits growth.  The municipality approaches this as something to get around.  The municipality has initiated a proposal for a 70 unit apartment development on Miller Road – far in excess of OCP maximum density.  This proposal was rejected by the Islands Trust, as contrary to the OCP, however, the municipality’s response was to draft an amendment to the OCP, to allow the proposal and similar intensive development throughout Snug Cove, rather than scale back the proposal.

These examples suggest that Bowen planning has lost its way.  Yes, we must deal with climate change, we need affordable housing and we want protection for Cape Roger Curtis.  However, the municipality’s solutions are urban –build apartments, create subdivisions and promote growth.  It is doubtful that these urban approaches will solve our problems, but it is highly likely that they will change our community irrevocably.

So, if we care to preserve this unique community and our island values, we have to elect people to council who not only share these concerns, but who will exert control over the municipality.  We need “made on Bowen” solutions which respect our island values, and representatives who will insist on that. 

John Rich has been a permanent resident of Bowen for 35 years.  He served 8 years as a Bowen representative on the Islands Trust, from 1976 to 1984.