As most people on Bowen already know, the CRC Trust Society has worked tirelessly for over 5 years to preserve and protect the lands of Cape Roger Curtis as stated in the mandate of the Islands Trust. The Trust Society is a group of people who would have preferred that the whole Cape be preserved as a park. In reality, this now appears not to be a possibility.
There are people on the island who think that the Trust Society would sacrifice anything to have part of this land preserved as a park. There are others who believe that the Trust Society is putting in jeopardy the possibility of any parkland at the Cape by taking a stand against the proposed “CRC Neighbourhood Plan”. To all those who hold either of these views I would say the following:
A park at Cape Roger Curtis would be a wonderful gift for those of us living on this island and an important legacy for future generations but we are not willing to sacrifice the quality of life of the rest of Bowen to preserve a small portion of the south west corner of this beautiful, rural municipality. As much as we care about the Cape lands, value the ecological uniqueness of it and recognize that compromise may be necessary, we also have a responsibility to consider the well-being of the island as a whole. We are not willing to put our interest in the preservation of Cape Roger Curtis ahead of our concern for the rest of Bowen Island and the diversity that it represents: its seniors; its low income residents; its business people; its commuters. It is for all these reasons that every member of the Cape Roger Curtis Trust Society Board has endorsed the “100 for Bowen ad.”
Ellen Coburn, on behalf of the Directors of the Trust Society
Letter to Bowen Island Municipality, Attention: Michael Rosen, 81 Artisan Lane, Bowen Island BC V0N 1G0 dated February 11, 2009
Re: Cape Roger Curtis - Neighbourhood Plan - September 2008
The Cape Roger Curtis Trust Society has been asked to comment on the development options for the 631-acre Cape Roger Curtis Lands (“CRC”) entitled Neighbourhood Plan (“NP”), dated September, 2008.
CAVEAT: The Cape Roger Curtis Trust Society has always worked in the hope of preserving all the CRC Lands from development in the belief that this is a unique, regionally significant coastal/marine area and that not preserving it as a park will have serious consequences for future generations on Bowen Island, and that its loss to development of any kind seriously compromises the “preserve and protect” mandate of this island.
Our overall goal continues to be to preserve as much of the CRC Lands in their current wild state as is possible. In recognizing the determination of the current owners to put housing onto the CRC Lands, we continue to argue for preserving as much of the property in its wild state as is possible. At a minimum, we look to retain 50% of the land as wild, contiguous, marine-based forest; this would most likely be in the form of a park and/or eco reserve.
We consider that many of our ecological concerns and recommendations, put forward in our last referral response to council dated January 29, 2008, have still not been adequately addressed, leading us to repeat many of the same concerns that we expressed at that time.
