Briefs from the April 27 Bowen Island Municipal Council regular meeting.
Need for less speed
Council passed first reading of a speed bylaw. Community planner Emma Chow said that under the Motor Vehicles Act, the enforceable speed limit in municipalities is 50 km/hr (school and playground zones are exceptions) and so Bowen needs a bylaw in order to enforce different speed limits (such as the mostly island-wide 40 km/hr limit).
Mayor Gary Ander, Kaile and Morse voiced concern with some of the speed limits laid out in Chow’s report, including pockets of 20 km/hr limits on Grafton Rd. and a 20 km/hr speed limit from Forest Ridge Rd. down to the golf course. Morse said there was no logic, rhyme or reason to the speed limits. Chow noted that the current maps are a starting point based on the data public works has and welomed input.
Coun. Sue Ellen Fast said people are frequently asking BIM to slow traffic down and Nicholson noted how this bylaw is a part of BIM’s 20-year transportation plan.
The first reading of the bylaw passed with Ander, Kaile and Morse against.
The other emergency
BIM now has a climate action strategy. Council passed the 10-point strategy that aims to align with Bowen becoming a zero emissions community by 2050 and to boost community resilience to the effects of climate change. Coun. David Hocking (who has been the council driver of the strategy) and BIM’s interim manager of parks and the environment, Bonny Brokenshire, presented the plan.
The plan broadly looks to move people out of cars through clustering homes, active transportation and advocacy with public transportation providers. It encourages e-vehicles, public and private alike, and looks at ways to reduce travelling need (more working on-island, on-island services, on-island composting). To build resilience the plan looks to protecting current infrastructure (the asset management plan being a part of this), increase protection from droughts (including storing more water from the winter rains), increase wildfire protection, protect and enhance natural systems and support regenerative agriculture. Public engagement is the final pillar of the strategy.
Council acknowledged “that climate change represents an emergency for Bowen Island” and committed to “developing a strategy to reduce emissions in alignment with the targets to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels,” last October.
See other briefs from the April 27 council meeting here and here.
