A little more than a year ago, representatives from Metro Vancouver met with members of Bowen Island’s municipal council to launch a planning process for Davies Orchard. A recent decision by Metro give priority to open space and demolish all but two cottages standing in Belcarra park near Deep Cove leaves Bowen Heritage board member Judi Gedye feeling pessimistic about the outcome of that process.
“In voting to save two cottages, when park staff recommended leaving four standing, Metro made the pragmatic decision,” says Gedye. “If that view is applied to us, six out of the 12 remaining cottages will be in jeopardy. I feel like this Belcarra decision is a bad omen.”
Gedye lived in cottage #19, which is still standing, between 1985 and 1989.
“I moved to Bowen in 1980, and I wanted to live in the cottages right away. It was a really nice community. The people who lived there, they were my people,” says Gedye. “There were funky little gardens with big old rhodos and roses growing up through the trees. And you would never know it now, that there were 180 cottages between Davies Orchard and the lagoon... if we lose the remaining cottages, well there will be no sense left of what this place was.”
Bowen Heritage was formed in 1989, with the intent of saving the cottages in Davies Orchard. Gedye has long been a driving force in the group, but her own memories of living in the place are just a small part of her motivation in this work.
“The floors, for example, are made out of old growth fir that was considered trash at the time those cottages were built. Now, if you cut a tree with that kind of wood it would be exported at top dollar,” says Gedye. “All the materials are local. In terms of the architecture, they are classic west coast cottages and built to a very human scale, which is what makes them appealing and comfortable.”
Gedye says the history of the Davies Orchard Cottages, plus the fact that a lot of public money has been invested in keeping them already, could result in a more positive planning outcome here than in Belcarra.
“What we really want is for Metro to invest the money into stabilizing the remaining cottages, to put money into the roofs and foundations,” says Gedye. “Once a plan is agreed upon about what the buildings can be used for, Bowen Heritage can apply for funding to restore them.”
Metro has yet to release any information about the contents of the report they’ll be presenting at a meeting here on Bowen next Wednesday.
“They did hire a heritage consultant to work on this, and they are good, smart people,” says Gedye of the decision-makers at Metro. “But it’s been really hard to get them to move on this. I am really looking forward to reading this report.”
