FRIDAY OCTOBER 31 2014 VOL. 41, NO. 43
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Q&A
More candidates respond to questions posed by the editor
Truthiness 2014
Words being thrown around in election season
The visitor experience
Survey yields heartfelt responses
Halloween came early to the meadow in Crippen Park last weekend with the Bowen Island Horse Riders Association (BIHORA) annual event, Halloween with Horses. More photos on page 16. Emmett Sparling, photo
Council pushes ahead with Lot 2 rezoning MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
Plans to rezone the community owned lands between Senior’s Lane and the grounds of BICS will be forwarded to the Islands Trust for approval after being given third reading by council this week. The rezoning plans divide the 11.4 acre property into three parts, which could include a medical centre within a four-storey apartment building, a “Community Campus” which would include a town hall, various other community facilities, and townhomes. In order to make this rezoning happen, council needs to amend the Official Community Plan (OCP) and Land Use Bylaw (LUB). Planning consultant Judy McLeod presented a report on how to move forward based on feedback collected at the public hearing in July. She told council that some members of the public, even those who were supportive of the plan overall, were concerned that public consultation about it was insufficient. More specifically, McLeod said that people pointed to the increase in density, the height of proposed apartment buildings, and the allowance of secondary suites within the townhouse buildings as being problematic. In response, council agreed to limit the
height of the apartment building to three stories, and eliminate the secondary suites allowed within the town home units. They also agreed to prioritize community facilities on Area 3 (where the community campus is planned) as opposed to such facilities having equal footing with a potential apartment building. The final decision on the rezoning of this land will be left to the next council. Mayoral candidate Murray Skeels says that as far as he is concerned, this week’s decision by council is for optics. “They could’ve done it within the first three months of their term,” says Skeels. He adds that he has concerns about whether things like an intersection between the top of Lot 2 and the bottom of the community school’s land is even possible. “It is a very high density rezoning. If I were doing it I would have had a traffic engineer look at the plan right off the bat. I don’t think they’ve done their proper homework on this.” Rather than large scale plans such as this one, Skeels says he prefers tackling one small project at a time. “It is very complex, to look at a large piece of land and build roads and imagine how you can divide it up and make money off of it,” he says. continued, PAGE 2
Positive outcome on twolane loading withers MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
On October 14, council passed a resolution for staff to come up with a way to implement the Easier Cove Loading plan, which envisioned cars lining up and loading onto the ferry from the two right-hand laned on Bowen Island Trunk Road. This week, the municipality’s Chief Administrative Officer, Kathy Lalonde, told council this week that there was nothing easy about moving forward with the Easier Cove Loading plan when looking at all the rules and regulations. In her overview of the staff report, Lalonde told council that the “kicker” is the fact that a Temporary Use Permit would be required to re-dedicate the use of on-street parking as a ferry lane. She emphasized that the aquisition of this permit is necessary according to law. “This process would require public consultation and referral to the Islands Trust, and the earliest we could have this, and in my mind this is really pushing it would be early January,” said Lalonde. Continuing with notes from the report, Lalonde said that the number of ferry marshalling spots available under this plan would be 25, which is less than appeared in
the earlier version of the plan as it did not take into account things like the inability to block fire hydrants. Originally, said Lalonde, what was appealing about the plan was that a full ferry loading would be accommodated by the two lanes. Lalonde added that while the Easier Cove Loading plan suggests that two-lane loading occur every day from 5 a.m. until 9:45 a.m., staff felt that this short time frame would ensure chaos in the Cove and that the plan should be in effect until noon each day. Lalonde brought forward numerous further complications to the plan, including an unwillingness to place the Denver Boot on cars that were left overnight on Bowen Island Trunk Road, and the need to replace street parking during business hours. Lalond said that ultimately, trying to make the plan work underscored, in her mind, the need for a Bowen Island transportation plan. “We’re up against the wire here, and trying to deal with things piece-meal,” she said. Council decided to hold off on rescinding the motion made on October 14 that aimed to make the Easier Cove Loading plan a reality, so that staff could meet and discuss the issue with Tom Matzen (the concept’s main proponent). continued, PAGE 2