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LETTER: Here’s why we should save ALL the Orchard Cottages

Dear Editor, On April 26, 2017, the Metro Parks Committee, at a meeting held on Bowen, received a staff report recommending two options for the future of the Union Steamship resort-era cottages in Davies Orchard.

Dear Editor,

On April 26, 2017, the Metro Parks Committee, at a meeting held on Bowen, received a staff report recommending two options for the future of the Union Steamship resort-era cottages in Davies Orchard. In summary, there are recommendations for landscaping, parking and some restoration, but most importantly, the options call for demolition of four or six of ten remaining cottages. Significantly, none of the cottages were assessed by Metro as beyond repair. Metro’s rationale for the proposed demolitions appears to be based on a combination of cost, park policy, and a lack of community uses for ten cottages. These recommendations were recently approved by the full Metro Board and have been referred for further public consultation. The public consultation consists of an open house from 10 am to noon Saturday June 17 in Davies Orchard, and an invitation-only meeting for community groups on Monday June 19.

For those of us who have spent more than 20 years trying to engage Metro Parks on a range of initiatives for maintenance and repair, and proposals to develop viable uses, we cannot begin to express our disappointment. We appreciate Metro’s attempt to propose what seems like a reasonable compromise, but in fact Metro has completely missed the mark, and here is why:

1. The historic value of Davies Orchard is not about an individual cottage or two, but rather what were close-knit tracts of company-built vacation cottages that once defined the character of Snug Cove. The Bowen Island Heritage Commission recognized the significance of the Orchard Cottages precinct by including it in the draft Heritage Register submitted to Municipal Council last year.

In 1983 when Crippen Park was created, a fraction of the original 200 Union Steamship resort cottages remained, including 14 of the original 20 in Davies Orchard. Since then, GVRD has demolished, moved or sold all but 10 in Davies Orchard. In the context of 20 cottages historically in the precinct, Metro’s current options to demolish more - keeping only four or six – seems less like a reasonable compromise and more like a token gesture that would erode much of the heritage value of this only remaining, relatively intact cottage precinct. Their reasonable compromise is also tempered by the fact that Metro has contributed to the decline in the condition of the cottages.

2. The Bowen community is capable of much more than Metro seems to recognize. After GVRD demolished two cottages in 1989, Bowen Heritage persuaded it to support a “heritage precinct” from the causeway to festival field.  For 15 years, but not the last 10, GVRD wrote support letters enabling Bowen Heritage to get sizeable federal, provincial and local grants to fully restore two cottages and stabilize two others, create an interpretive sign, and install a bronze statue. Community members have invested years of time, money and free labour into the site and structures. A long list of volunteers have performed countless jobs all to demonstrate Bowen’s passion and capacity to fundraise, work together and make projects happen, as was done with the Old General Store.  

3. Permitted uses have long been an issue. Many community groups would be interested in bookable space, and combined with revenue-producing uses, we want Metro to explore a more made-on-Bowen vision for the whole of Davies Orchard as a vibrant, sustainable community space that serves both Bowen and Metro Park needs.

We have long had a vision that all 10 cottages would be restored and put to productive and self-sustaining use alongside the existing cottage museum. Our vision includes short-term vacation rentals, small conferences, meeting rooms, workshop and class space, artist/artisan retreats and studios, an off-season artist-in-residence programme, an ecology centre focused on a school age audience, and a tearoom. We envisage an enriched, thriving, creative precinct that will be a big part of the restored heart of Snug Cove. 

We are asking Metro to add a third option to those being put forward for public consultation, in particular, our vision for an environmentally, socially and financially sustainable future for all ten cottages in Davies Orchard.

Join Bowen Heritage and add your voice to the campaign. Attend the public open house on June 17. If your community group has been invited, register to attend the June 19 meeting. If you have the passion and skills to help us realize our vision, please let us know.

For more information visit www.bowenheritage.org.  

 

Judi Gedye
Pernille Nielsen
Ellen White
Maria Steernberg
Hans Behm
Bill Carr
Anita Bleik
Peter Vaisbord
Jack Little
Melissa Harrison
Don Youngson
Rob Forbes
Andrew Todd
Ron Woodall
John Rich
Anne & Andre Chollat
Wade Davis
Ron Woodall