details
The details of the planning concepts are still in the initial planning phase. However, the rough concepts currently are as follows.
Micro Homes on Lease Lots
Approximately 1/3 of the units shall be clustered in a small "cottage court" which is composed of cottage-style "micro homes," 750 to 1,100 square feet in size, on compact lease lots. The lease will follow a traditional concept used in many European countries for hundreds of years. The term will be for 99 years. The lease payments will be modest and payable quarterly or semi-annually over the period of the lease, instead of payable up front as in many locally known land leases. Increases in lease payments over the term of the lease shall not be based on increases in the land value, but only on the cost of living index. This avoids unstable and unpredictable increases in lease payments based on rising property values.
The "cottage court" would be ideally suited for single-person households, and households without children, with modest incomes.
The homes could be re-sold or left as an inheritance, same as with a fee simple home.
Rental Units
Approximately 1/3 of the units shall be rental units mostly of a size which are rarely built any longer as rental units, namely either small studio or 1-bedroom units, or 3- or 4-bedroom units. The intent is to provide housing for single people, or families with children, with modest incomes, a kind of housing which is rare on Bowen Island. Most rental units would be designed and built to be pet friendly and pet tolerant. Many elderly single people want and need pets for their emotional and physical well being. And the same is true for families with young children who deserve to own a pet if they want to.
Live/Work Spaces
Approximately 1/3 of the units shall be a small cluster of live/work spaces. They shall have workshops downstairs and small studio-like apartments with some common space upstairs, for young and/or single trades people who otherwise could not afford to live on Bowen Island.
Please note that the final mix may not be exactly 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 — however, the intent is to create a healthy mix of the above three housing forms.
Institutional
It is also proposed that the rezoning of Parkview Slopes include an area for institutional uses, especially a place for life long learning of arts, crafts, and life skills. This area will include the current Tir-na-nOg Theatre School building and some of the surrounding lands.
Receiving Lands at Cowan Point
The receiving lands on Cowan Point shall use the transferred density to provide alternative market housing forms which are urgently needed, but are not allowed under the current zoning. Our proposal will, therefore, be based on the transfer of allowed floor space ratios (FSR) rather than a simple unit count. This is necessary to allow alternative housing forms which would not be affordable if restricted to single-family detached homes. Seymour Landing will require substantial investments in the next 2 to 10 years for the creation of amenities for public benefit (i.e. upgrade and stabilization of the waterfront at Seymour Bay Beach, construction of a landing facility for a passenger ferry to Vancouver, community clubhouse, and additional recreational facilities), many of which would not be feasible or justifiable without the proposed density transfer.
Infrastructure in Snug Cove
We have confirmed to the Municipality our willingness to help in the construction of part or all of the sewer collection trunk from the bottom of Parkview Slopes to Mount Gardner Road, with an extension west to a pump station at elevation bottom, and east to the next existing connection in front of Bowen Island Community School. The system could then be extended further northward to provide sewer hookup for Miller Road and the Abbeyfield development. The funding for the construction could be shared between Bowen Island Municipality and us (and potentially other users if so desired by the Municipality), or we could provide the necessary up-front funding, subject to customary cost sharing formulas and latecomer agreements.
The reasons for our offer to assist the Municipality in the construction of necessary infrastructure are twofold. First, we hope that our offer to assist in the provision of infrastructure works will be regarded as an "amenity" in support of our application. Second, the provision of needed infrastructure works may enable the Municipality to undertake construction of a recreation/community centre parallel to, or closely following, the first construction on Parkview Slopes. After all, we consider a recreation/community centre is as important as affordable housing and local employment.
Here is an example of one of several conceptual layouts for Parkview Slopes.