On Saturday, Councillor Paul Albrecht and I visited the Mayor of Bowen Island, Andrew Leonard. Mayor Leonard gave us a tour of the island and provided some important insights.
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| Me, Councillor Paul Albrecht and Mayor Andrew Leonard at Cape Roger Curtis. Select the image to enlarge. |
Councillor Albrecht is Langley City Council's appointee to the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board, and I serve on the Mayors' Council for Regional Transportation. In these roles, we must make decisions for the whole region. It is essential to understand the context of all parts of our region to make better decisions, which is why I've been visiting the mayors of other municipalities in their communities.
Bowen Island is a unique municipality within Metro Vancouver in more than one way. Besides being the only island municipality in BC, it is also part of the Islands Trust, so it has a legislative requirement to "preserve and protect" the environment and the island way of life. After Crown land, the Metro Vancouver Regional District is the second largest landholder on the island for its regional parks. These parks create some unique challenges for the island.
Mayor Leonard noted that about half the ferry trips are for folks visiting Crippen Regional Park. For a small island community of 4,256, this creates an oversized impact on their community.
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| Passengers disembarking at Snug Cove on Bowen Island. Select the image to enlarge. |
The Metro Vancouver Regional District recently acquired land to build another regional park on the island at Cape Roger Curtis. I posted about this previously.
The long-term plan for the new park will be to have 52 walk-in/bike-in campsites, 33 drive-in campsites, and 40 day-use parking spots. Traditionally, people drive to regional parks for camping, but for Cape Roger Curtis, there is the opportunity to do things differently.
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| A proposed campsite location at Cape Roger Curtis. Select the image to enlarge. |
Mayor Leonard drove Councillor Albrecht and me to Cape Roger Curtis. You travel on a narrow road through a residential neighbourhood to access the park.
With limited parking and poor driving access, this park must be accessible by public transit thru the Metro Vancouver Regional District, TransLink, or both. Mayor Leonard said the 33 drive-in campsites should be replaced with additional walk-in/bike-in campsites as it is one of the few parks with camping in Metro Vancouver that is easier to access via public transit from the rest of the region.
For example, someone in Whalley could take the SkyTrain to Downtown Vancouver, hop on the Horsebay Express, then ferry to the island in a few hours.
The other item of importance for Bowen Island to effectively serve Metro Vancouver Regional Park visitors is completing the Bowen Island Multi-Use Path Project. Given that the Regional District creates 35% of the trips to the island, it makes sense that we, as a region, contribute to completing this path project.
While the Regional District is considering walking, cycling, and transit as a way to access its parks on Bowen Island, the understanding I got from Mayor Leonard is they are still thinking that driving would be the primary way for people to access these parks.
Given our region's goal to reduce motor vehicle trips, Bowen Island would be the perfect place to practice what we preach, to create parks that are accessible primarily via walking, cycling, and transit and where driving is actively discouraged. This people-first access approach also seems to be what the Bowen Island community supports.
6 comments:
It's lovely that you visited and also great that you're advocating to help pay for the MUP. But is the discussion really should people drive, bike or take transit to the Cape? Especially given that we can't legally prevent people from driving onto the island. Shouldn't the first question be is a 100 site campground development the right thing for the island and specifically for that location?
They state "For example, someone in Whalley could take the SkyTrain to Downtown Vancouver, hop on the Horsebay Express, then ferry to the island in a few hours" And then what? Walk 12 Km to the site, or wait another hour for a mythical shuttle. Are these people expected to carry their coolers, camping gear, food and water through this expedition? It's ludacris to expect this will happen. And the bonus of getting stuck in Horseshoe Bay in a 1 or 2 ferry overload situation is a distinct reality. Please put this project somewhere it will actually be of benefit to the region.
Linked in this post is an earlier article where you write: "Recently, the Metro Vancouver Regional District completed purchasing 97 hectares of land at Cape Roger Curtis on Bowen Island for a new regional park. The new park will have day-use activities like hiking and overnight camping." This isn't acurate. overnight camping was not negotiated in the purchase of the land, and is passionately opposed by over 82% eligible voters of the number of Bowenians that voted in the last election. Costs to open the park, before the walking bike trail, before any adequate water reservoir is $15 million. Like any development budgeting, you should triple that now. Plus.
There are wonderfulI places within MV to go camping, and they have there place for practical accessible and sustainable reasons. unfortunately Bowen Island is not that place. It is probably why the majority of the Bowen Island electorate have signed petition indicating no support for camping as proposed by MV.
The article states: "While the Regional District is considering walking, cycling, and transit as a way to access its parks on Bowen Island, the understanding I got from Mayor Leonard is they are still thinking that driving would be the primary way for people to access these parks.
Given our region's goal to reduce motor vehicle trips, Bowen Island would be the perfect place to practice what we preach, to create parks that are accessible primarily via walking, cycling, and transit and where driving is actively discouraged. This people-first access approach also seems to be what the Bowen Island community supports."
How did you get to the site? It most certainly was not by a walking, cycling, or transit, you drove... Bowen is the least feasible place you could possibly put a park you expect could be serviced by walking, cycling, and transit - have you ever walked or biked across the island? I challenge the entire Metro Park Committee to come over and do either of these things, but please let us know ahead of time as 30 of you coming at once is likely to cause a ferry overload...
And this statementin particular is absurd- "This people-first access approach also seems to be what the Bowen Island community supports" You did not interview anyone from the community, please stop putting words in our mouths, we do not support any camping regardless of how the people will get there. The destination park itself will cause enough problems without the camping component.
Please put this project somewhere it is wanted and of more use to the rest of the region.
The only words i can find at this point are delusion and sadness.
this will literally drive residents/hosts off the island they call home. It’s just insane to believe that this island can manage anymore influx of visitors.
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