After releasing the two proposed options for the future of the Davies Orchard portion of Crippen Park in late April, eleven Committee members and five staff from Metro Parks came to Bowen Island and toured the site. Only one member of this group had been to Bowen in the past five years, and the last Metro Parks meeting to take place on Bowen was in the 1990s.
“I think they were quite taken with the location and the potential of the place,” says municipal councilor Maureen Nicholson, Bowen’s liaison to Metro Parks. “They now have a good sense of what’s been saved.”
The first option for Davies Orchard is called the “Open Space Concept,” and it involves tearing down all remaining cottages in the Orchard except the four that have already been renovated and are currently in use. The second concept, “The Heritage Concept,” would mean two additional cottages would be restored.
The first option would cost Metro Parks roughly $800 thousand to implement, and the second would cost an estimated $1.3 million.
“There are benefits to Metro going with the more expensive option,” says Nicholson. “The two extra cottages would serve as bookable space, for meetings, weddings and so-on, for people both on Bowen and in the lower mainland. Also, the second option is likely to be more palatable to Bowen Islanders. I think Metro is looking for a good compromise here - if they took down all the cottages, it would be heartbreaking, but they couldn’t afford to keep them all standing.”
Bowen Islanders will get another chance to have their to comment on the options with another round of public engagement, which is likely to happen in June.
