Sometimes it feels in life there are winners and there are losers. With the Cape Roger Curtis park process there doesn’t have to be.
The two main concerns over the park are transportation and ecology. The park may help solve the first and well, the latter, it goes without saying. I have spent much of my solo career as an architect trying to figure out how to make Bowen better. Many of my plans never were realized, some still may, and some are built, including three buildings in Snug Cove.
While I reside in Gibsons now, Bowen is never far from my heart, and my daughter and much of my work is on Bowen. When you love something or someone it often stays in your life.
I have worked with many councils since my move to Bowen in 2005, and this council has done something extraordinary. They have made important decisions in the midst of many distractions, being completely transparent, and I know as a planner that they have your interests in sight and front and centre. In particular you have a young new Mayor, relatively new to Bowen, who has skillfully navigated his constituents' interests with the professional voices of his staff at BIM and Metro Vancouver.
Anything can be destroyed, but try to save something. That’s hard work. Now is the time to build great things and not to tear then down. Now is the time to collaborate with higher levels of government to help solve affordability and transportation issues. Metro owns Crippen Park. Crippen park engulfs your village which is rich in heritage yet short on land. Why not work with Metro now to build more buildings in Snug Cove that can be mixed use like the Bowen Island Pub, and like Glenn Cormier’s visionary project also contain Bowen Island’s much needed adoptable housing.
Why not work now through Metro with Translink to find subsidies for the passenger ferry service already being planned for Bowen and Gibsons.
As a community you can build up your leaders and trust them and enable them to do great things. Or you can choose to tear them down in disagreement with what they believe to be decisions made with wisdom and with the wise counsel of their professional staff.
If ever there was a time we need to show leadership for our youth, it is today. Right now. We need to show them we care for them. We care about their future and we can solve our problems through collaboration rather than conflict. Through forgiveness rather than blame.
To the commuters. I feel your pain every single day. I’ve commuted onto Bowen, off of Bowen. I’ve commuted from the valley and I’ve commuted from the Sunshine Coast. Trust your leaders. They want to be your champions for better ferry service and they will use the park as leverage to get you better service.
BC Ferries can and will add more capacity. They always do. If you look to Scandinavia you will see similar communities using smaller ferries on more frequent intervals. That is the solution. Like the SeaBus. And BCF is adding new state of the art ferries already to its other Gulf Island routes.
When I did the Snug Cove transportation studies in 2010/11 I was told the same thing. BCF was at capacity. And that Sung Cove and Horseshoe Bay was at capacity for staging vehicle traffic. It was impossible to move more cars. I was told BCF would never ever give Bowen Island more vehicle capacity without building the loop road. Within one year after, they added the upper decks to the Queen of Capilano. All the skeptics were proven wrong.
If anything coming from someone who dreams for a living, I urge you to look forward to the future and not fear it. I don’t think your fears will come true. And I do think your children and your grandchildren and those who come later will thank all of us for the Cape Roger Curtis Park.
- James Tuer
