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Uphold the OCP and the democratic process that created it

Dear Editor: As a Bowen property owner since 1975 who was involved - along with many others - with the extensive grass-roots efforts which created our original Official Community Plan, I express my heartfelt appreciation to you for giving Dr.

Dear Editor:

As a Bowen property owner since 1975 who was involved - along with many others - with the extensive grass-roots efforts which created our original Official Community Plan, I express my heartfelt appreciation to you for giving Dr. Dave Witty the opportunity to submit his excellent guest editorial in the last issue of the Undercurrent.
In his editorial, he states that Bowen’s current OCP was built on the foundations of true democracy - which involve celebrating community engagement and fostering diversity of views. As they did when our OCP was created, islanders still firmly believe that listening to the people is critical to the democratic decision making process. It is that process which created our Official Community Plan - a plan which our current council is now attempting to amend.
The late Art Phillips, former mayor of Vancouver, strongly cautioned us that, if we want to avoid the mistakes of urban communities, we need to keep supporting our OCP and to uphold the democratic process which created it. I sincerely hope the people of Bowen Island, especially the younger generation, will keep carrying the torch we lit when we created our OCP.

John Sbragia