FRIDAY OCTOBER 17 2014 VOL. 41, NO. 41
75¢
including GST
Watch for more online at: WWW.BOWENISLANDUNDERCURRENT.COM
Espresso tips
Splitting the vote
By your local top-tier barista
The editor’s take on this election’s long list of candidates
In the running
Candidates take questions from The Undercurrent
From library annex to cultural corner Council supports new library expansion plan MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
Annika Tait-Rabi on the mini pumpkin patch outside the Ruddy Potato. Saskia Tait, photo
Pitched originally as a simple extension to the library in order to provide more space for homework clubs and other group activities within the library, the Annie Laurie Wood Annex is now being envisioned as part of something bigger, both physically and metaphorically. Chief librarian Tina Nielsen told council this week that by building a larger space in conjunction with the Bowen Island Arts Council, the extension could become the cultural corner of the Cove. “We’re calling it C-cubed, Cove Culture Corner,” said Nielsen. “It will enliven the entrance to our island with a sense of culture, learning, connection and conversation.” When Nielsen asked for council’s support on the original project back in April, Mayor Jack Adelaar expressed some hesitation based on the idea that the library might find a new home alongside other public amenities in a community centre. At the time, Nielsen said while she liked the idea of the library being part of a shared community space, a simple expansion to the library would happen more quickly and more cost effectively than a whole new building. Nielsen said that shortly after proposing the Annex idea publicly, the Library and Arts Council were approached by members of the public who suggested expanding the initial plans to allow the two organizations to share a building in Snug Cove. “At first we couldn’t see how we could make it fit,” Nielsen said. “But
we realized we could actually do a larger project, one joint building with two parts to it. One part will be for the library, with the same planned uses as before, and the other part will be a gallery and office space for the Arts Council. It will give the Arts Council a more permanent home, in the Cove.” The projected size of the new space is somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 square feet. Nielsen said that while the design is far from finalized, ideally, the two separate spaces could have multiple uses and potentially open up to each other. “But that’s a job for the designers,” she said. The one potential drawback she warned council of is that the extension would block off access between the parking lot behind the library and Cardena Road. While council had a few questions about the evolution of the project, all members stated their support and the belief that such an expansion was a positive step in the revitalization of Snug Cove. Later in the same meeting, Council decided against one of the proposed plans for coping with the mid-life refit of the Queen of Capilano which involved buses exiting by way of a through-way made through the back parking lot of the library in to the main lot. Conversely, council approved of a plan put forward by councillor Tim Rhodes to expand the current library parking lot to the west to include an area where cars could pick-up and drop-off walk on ferry passengers, turn around and exit on to Bowen Island Trunk Road.
Council says “go” to plan for two-lane loading MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
The last time the Queen of Capilano was replaced with the Bowen Queen, overloaded cars stretching all the way back up onto Mt. Gardner Road became a fact of life on Bowen. Several months ago, Deep Bay resident Tom Matzen presented a plan to council that would, he believes, keep the ferry line-up to a more reasonable length. The “Easier Cove Loading Plan,” as he calls it, would turn the right-hand lane in lower part of Bowen Island Trunk Road, currently used for parking, into a lane for cars that are being loaded onto the ferry. Despite a report outlining the costs, shortcomings and challenges of the plan, council voted unanimously this week to support Matzen’s plan and find a way to make it happen. Bowen Island’s new Senior Planner, Cari St. Pierre, told council that from a planning perspective, implementing the proposal would mean contravening the municipality’s own bylaws. Current bylaws require that there be one parking space for every commercial unit in the Cove including gen-
eral service, retail, office spaces, restaurants or pubs. She said that during the mid-life refit (which will see the smaller boat, the Bowen Queen sailing back and forth between Snug Cove and Horseshoe Bay for an estimated four months or more) overloads are likely to occur on most of the daily sailings. If the afternoon rush-hour was included as part of the plan’s implementation, said St. Pierre, retail and restaurants in the lower Cove would lack parking for up to six hours of the day. St. Pierre added that making the plan work within the context of all the other proposals for the midlife re-fit would be complicated, and that the two-lane loading plan fails to address a great number of other transportation plans in lower Snug Cove. The mid-life refit mitigation measures measures, as Bowen Island Transportation Advisory Committee chair Adam Holbrook stated earlier in the meeting, were drafted with the intention of encouraging people not to drive their cars onto the ferry at all. “In one sense, this plan actually promotes people staying in their cars,” Holbrook told council. “But in another sense, we do see that there will be a problem with people parking way up
the hill because there will be overloads, and this plan will help with that.” Bonny Brokenshire explained the bylaw services perspective on the Easier Cove Loading plan. She told council that while it would be possible to collaborate with public works to create the appropriate signage (so that people know how to operate within this system) bylaw services does not currently have the resources to carry out pre-plan enforcement to get people out of the habit of parking in the right-hand lane overnight. “We would have to hire and train two more bylaw officers,” said Brokenshire. “We do not use tire-booting and we have no towing procedures in place. Besides, adding boots could cause more traffic congestion, and when people are trying to get out of a spot and can’t see the traffic flowing, that’s when we’ve seen accidents in the past.” Members of council proceeded to express their support for the plan, and also to state potential solutions to the obstacles stated in St. Pierre’s report and presentation. continued, PAGE 2