September 22, 2004 – Letter from Save Our Parkland Association urging the municipality and the GVRD to find means to protect the fragile, ecologically unique coastal bluffs at Cape Roger Curtis for residents of Bowen Island and others who live in the lower Mainland.

SAVE OUR PARKLAND ASSOCIATION
P. O. Box 39028, Pt. Grey R. P. O., Vancouver, B. C. V6R 4P1

2 Sept. 2004

Mayor Lisa Barrett and Members of Council
Bowen Island Municipality
981 Artisan Lane
Bowen Island, B.C., VON 1-G0

Dear Mayor Barrett and Members of Council

Cape Roger Curtis

I am writing on behalf of Save Our Parkland Association which was formed in 1963 and deals with issues concerning parkland, protected areas and open green space.

In 1991 one of our members, Dr. Bert Brink, Professor Emeritus, and former Head of Plant Science at the University of British Columbia, submitted a report which recommended that the fragile, ecologically unique coastal bluffs at Cape Roger Curtis should be protected in order to preserve this remnant of dry coastal Douglas Fir habitat.

Now, we understand that the privately-owned 650 acres of Cape Roger Curtis have been sold to a developer who plans to develop ten 10-acre lots within the next ten years (and a total of sixty four 10-acre lots in all in the future). As we understand it, no public discussion has been held.

Save Our Parkland Association urges Council to find means to protect at least the most ecologically sensitive areas so that Bowen Island residents and others who live in the Lower Mainland area will be able to experience this special area in perpetuity. As you are aware, one of the aims of the Greater Vancouver Regional District is to preserve and enhance local bio-diversity; Cape Roger Curtis is an outstanding example, and should remain that way.

Yours sincerely

June Binkert
President

c.c. Cape Roger Curtis Trust Society
Mr. Marvin Hunt, Chair, GVRD Board
Ms. Judith Higginbotham, Chair, GVRD Parks Dept

September 17, 2004 – Letter expressing the Vancouver Natural History Society’s great concern about development plans for Cape Roger Curtis, describing VNHS’s long history of fields trips to the Cape, and advocating CRC’s protection because of its special botanical features.

Vancouver Natural History Society

P.O. Box 3021, Vancouver. B.C. V6B 3X5

September 17, 2004

Lisa Barrett and Members of Council
Bowen Island Municipality
981 Artisan Lane
Bowen Island, BC V0N 1G0

Dear Mayor Barrett and Members of Council,

Re: Cape Roger Curtis

I am writing on behalf of the Vancouver Natural History Society (VNHS) to express our great concern about development plans for Cape Roger Curtis. We are aware that this 649-acre, privately owned, forest and coastal bluffs property was recently sold. We understand that the new owners plan to divide it into 64 ten-acre lots for future residential development, and expect to develop ten of these lots in the near future.

VNHS is a 900-member Lower Mainland organization with a long-standing interest in Cape Roger Curtis. Our Society was founded in 1918 by John Davidson, the University of British Columbia’s first botany professor and BC’s first provincial botanist. Since the early 1920s, VNHS members have made numerous field trips to the Cape and have advocated its protection over many years because of its special botanical features, which result from its southern exposure in the rainshadow of the coast mountains.

In 1991, Mr. Terry Taylor, one of the Society’s most knowledgeable members, volunteered to prepare a botanical survey of the area at the request of a local citizens’ group. He found that Cape Roger Curtis, in particular its coastal seepage slopes, contained more botanical diversity than any other such coastal site he had visited along Howe Sound. A recent trip to the Cape confirmed his view that the Cape probably contains the greatest botanical diversity of any site on Georgia Strait’s east coast. lt should be noted that Mr. Taylor is regularly hired by consultants to do botanical surveys because of his special expertise in this field.

Dr. V.C. (Bert) Brink, UBC Professor Emeritus of Agriculture and VNHS’s honourary president, also submitted a report in 1991, recommending protection of these fragile, ecologically unique coastal bluffs. He commented recently that, as a result of development, Cape Roger Curtis represents the last opportunity for Lower Mainland residents and visitors to see this type of Dry Coastal Douglas-fir habitat in our area. In this context, it should also be noted that an April 3, 2001, Conservation Data Centre report stated that “The Shore Pine-Douglas-fir/Cladina plant community with Rocky Mountain juniper found there is provincially ranked 52 (red-listed).”

We understand that the Bowen Island Municipal Council is aware of community concerns about the future of Cape Roger Curtis, and that municipal staff and the Advisory Planning Committee (APC) have been requested to make recommendations to Council at its October 4 meeting regarding the implementation of an environmental protection bylaw, revised development cost charges and other growth management tools. We would be pleased to meet on site with Council, staff, APC members and the developer to point out the Cape’s ecologically important areas so that their protection could be taken into consideration in any development plans for this land. We hope it will be possible to find ways to protect significant portions of the Cape for their intrinsic value and the public good.

Thank you for your consideration of our comments. Please contact me at katharine@steig.com or 604-922-7949 if you would like to discuss our offer to meet on site.

Yours sincerely,

Katharine Steig, Chair, Conservation Section
Vancouver Natural History Society

cc: Mr. Wolfgang Duntz, developer, Cape Roger Curtis
Ms. Sue Ellen Fast, Chair, Cape Roger Curtis Trust Society

1. Are the CRC supporters trying to stop development?
Answer: No. The Official Community Plan (“OCP”) forecasts that the population will increase gradually to over 8,000 from the existing level of about 3,200. We expect that will happen over time. The issue is where development happens on the Island, how it happens, and what community benefits are created. Not many people know that the OCP parks plan was based on a plan submitted by the Bowen Island Parks and Rec Commission in 1994 which stated “At least an additional 400 acres of natural park is required to protect special features on land which could otherwise be developed. Although a number of passive areas currently exist in Regional Crippen Park, at least one more passive park is needed at the south end of the island as well as more public areas to support existing beaches”.

2. Aren’t all new developments required to dedicate land for public use and provide water access? If so “why worry”?
Answer: Yes – the norms are about 5% for park/public use and beach accesses 20 meters wide every 400 meters. These public amenities are good but they are small. If the property is developed with 10 acre lots, as permitted under the current zoning, it is not clear if even 5% needs to be dedicated. Also many of the beach accesses in practice are very little used and do not give any public access to the headlands above the highwater mark in the areas adjacent to the access.

3. How much park does Bowen have now and how much public access is there to the shoreline?
Answer: Here are the statistics we have gathered:
The conclusions from this are:
Yes, Bowen has a lot of public land (about 40%) but this includes much steep inaccessible land in the watersheds, and the ecological reserve which is not open for public access. We estimate that only about 16% of the land area is truly accessible.
If however one looks at the access to the shoreline then the picture is very different with only about 5% of the island’s shoreline easily accessible to the public. Most of this is in the areas of Crippen Park close to Snug Cove. There is no other significant area of beach headland access and certainly none with the expanse and beauty of CRC.

4. A new park is too expensive. The island cannot afford it. We need more tax revenues, not less.
Answers: The Park we envisage would be a low impact regional park just like Crippen Park is now. The costs of running such a park are relatively low and we expect would be borne by the GVRD or a similar agency and thus shared with lower mainland taxpayers. In the long term tax revenue would not be affected since the total population would be the same (but with more density in the Snug Cove area and less in CRC). In the short term additional tax revenues from the one third portion of CRC that would be developed would be in excess of $200,000 per year. In addition it is very likely that the Municipality will have to increase its development charges very substantially to pay for the effects of developments on all aspects of infrastructure (right now they are in the $1,000 per lot range while those in places like Whistler are $20,000 plus per lot).
5. A park would bring thousands of additional visitors to the island. Some people claim it would bring millions of additional visitors. We don’t want that.
Answers: The park we envisage would be a low impact day park with walk in access only and would be very similar to Crippen park in that respect. Yes it would bring more visitors to the island but even if the existing Crippen Park visitor numbers were doubled it would still be thousands, not millions, of additional visitors per year. Many Bowen businesses would benefit and we hope that most Bowenians would be happy to share such a beautiful place with their fellow citizens provided that the park is appropriately designed and responsibly operated.

A circular by Wolfgang Duntz on behalf of the Cape Roger Curtis Joint Venture, mailed to everyone on Bowen Island warning of dire consequences of creating a large park at Cape Roger Curtis. Scary…
View PDF of mailout by Cape Roger Curtis Joint Venture