Bowen Bulletin

Our Official Community Plan (OCP) update process is officially off and running. Looking over the existing plan, I realize that the world has changed a lot in the last 15 years but I wonder how many of the old assumptions that framed so much of the very earliest community plans will be accepted again without very much serious analysis. Many of the people who moved to Bowen Continue reading ›

Every summer, in the middle of July we are greeted with an announcement in the paper that water shortages are imminent and outdoor water use is to be sharply curtailed. On the face of it, one would assume that we are all on the same water system or all drawing our water from the same aquifer or that the potential shortage problems apply to at least most of the island. In truth, we have six major water systems with several smaller systems drawing from creeks, several small systems drawing from common wells, a number of properties drawing their water from creeks and shallow wells, numerous properties on individual deep wells that share small aquifers with their neighbours and a few homes that harvest rainwater. So the questions become; “Who do these water restrictions apply to and why are they really needed?” Continue reading ›

The Cape Roger Curtis development saga has taken another bizarre twist. In 2004 the developers who had purchased the 630 acres at the south-western tip of Bowen Island applied for subdivision. Eventually their application was reviewed and the Approving Officer (AO) laid out a number of deficiencies, conditions and requirements. Subsequent to that rejection Continue reading ›

Most communities fall into one of two camps. Either – we’re being overrun and need to enact policies that will curb undesirable development or – this town is dying, we need to attract some business. Bowen doesn’t really fit into either group. We’re considered in the wider world to be a suburb of metro Vancouver. Provincial and federal economic development initiatives deliberately exclude us and we’ve never had a very coherent strategy for attracting business so one could assume that we must be deliberately trying to discourage it. Continue reading ›

The Cape Roger Curtis development was almost the biggest thing to ever hit our island. However, at their April 20 meeting our council rescinded the bylaw that would have made the Neighbourhood Plan (NP) possible. The developers will now choose whether to apply for a rezoning that fits within our Official Community Plan with up to 224 lots or apply for subdivision approval, which restricts development to lots that are a minimum of ten acres. This would result in the creation of somewhere between 40 and 58 lots, depending on who you listen to. Of course they could do nothing and let things die down for a while but nobody is betting on that.

Before moving on to more interesting things Continue reading ›