The last time the Queen of Capilano was replaced with the Bowen Queen, overloaded cars stretching all the way back up onto Mt. Gardner Road became a fact of life on Bowen. Several months ago, Deep Bay resident Tom Matzen presented a plan to council that would, he believes, keep the ferry line-up to a more reasonable length. The “Easier Cove Loading Plan,” as he calls it, would turn the right-hand lane in lower part of Bowen Island Trunk Road, currently used for parking, into a lane for cars that are being loaded onto the ferry. Despite a report outlining the costs, shortcomings and challenges of the plan, council voted unanimously this week to support Matzen’s plan and find a way to make it happen.
Bowen Island’s new Senior Planner, Cari St. Pierre, told council that from a planning perspective, implementing the proposal would mean contravening the municipality’s own bylaws. Current bylaws require that there be one parking space for every commercial unit in the Cove including general service, retail, office spaces, restaurants or pubs. She said that during the mid-life refit (which will see the smaller boat, the Bowen Queen sailing back and forth between Snug Cove and Horseshoe Bay for an estimated four months or more) overloads are likely to occur on most of the daily sailings. If the afternoon rush-hour was included as part of the plan’s implementation, said St. Pierre, retail and restaurants in the lower Cove would lack parking for up to six hours of the day.
St. Pierre added that making the plan work within the context of all the other proposals for the midlife re-fit would be complicated, and that the two-lane loading plan fails to address a great number of other transportation plans in lower Snug Cove. The mid-life refit mitigation measures measures, as Bowen Island Transportation Advisory Committee chair Adam Holbrook stated earlier in the meeting, were drafted with the intention of encouraging people not to drive their cars onto the ferry at all.
“In one sense, this plan actually promotes people staying in their cars,” Holbrook told council. “But in another sense, we do see that there will be a problem with people parking way up the hill because there will be overloads, and this plan will help with that.”
Bonny Brokenshire explained the bylaw services perspective on the Easier Cove Loading plan. She told council that while it would be possible to collaborate with public works to create the appropriate signage (so that people know how to operate within this system) bylaw services does not currently have the resources to carry out pre-plan enforcement to get people out of the habit of parking in the right-hand lane overnight.
“We would have to hire and train two more bylaw officers,” said Brokenshire. “We do not use tire-booting and we have no towing procedures in place. Besides, adding boots could cause more traffic congestion, and when people are trying to get out of a spot and can’t see the traffic flowing, that’s when we’ve seen accidents in the past.”
Members of council proceeded to express their support for the plan, and also to state potential solutions to the obstacles stated in St. Pierre’s report and presentation.
Councilor Andrew Stone said he appreciated the fact that St. Pierre’s report acknowledged what he sees as a very real problem of parking in the Cove, but he preferred to focus on the positive aspects of Matzen’s plan.
“Ten years ago, when David Wrinch’s alternate loading plan was on the table there were a lot of concerns, but he just said, I’m doing it, and got out his paint bucket to make it happen,” said Stone. “There were safety concerns but, many aspects of this system were very good. I don’t want to see this issue let go.”
Councilor Cro Lucas recommended that it might be worthwhile to negotiate for the use of the private lot (the Rennison lot) just below the General Store. That lot, he said, could likely make up for the spaces lost on the side of Trunk Road.
Councilor Alison Morse questioned the need to hire flaggers to direct the drivers onto the ferry – a need that would cost an estimate $300 per day to fill.
“In the first couple of days when we did this [David Wrinch’s two lane loading system] in 2003, commuters caught on really quickly,” said Morse. “It only took a few days for people to catch on to what they were supposed to do.”
Councilor Tim Rhodes, acting as mayor, suggested that some sort of public consultation process might alleviate people’s concerns about this plan.
Tom Matzen responded by saying that, in the year and a half since drafting the Easier Cove Loading plan he has spoken with 20 or 30 groups on the island, all of the merchants who are open during the morning hours when the plan would be implemented, and the Economic Development Committee.
“Every single time I’ve had a discussion about this, I’ve been told that it makes sense,” said Matzen. “And every single merchant who in the Cove who is open during the time it would operate wants it to happen. Other merchants, who aren’t, say they would consider opening if it does! And if there is one thing that came out of the Economic Development Committee meeting on this, it’s that the plan needs to start being enforced in advanced if it is going to work.”
After some further discussion on the details of the plan, all four councilors present voted to move forward with the Easier Cove Loading plan. Details, such as how parking will be enforced and whether or not flaggers will be used, will sorted out by municipal staff.
