BOWSER – 20 years of work to make Bowser a village centre has hit a major milestone.
The Regional District of Nanaimo has adopted by-laws establishing the Bowser Village Sanitary Sewer Service. RDN chair and Area ‘H’ director Bill Veenhof said Bowser can now achieve the community’s aspirations.
“In terms of becoming a village centre that has amenities, density of population,” said Veenhof. “They can talk intelligently about six, seven hundred homes in that area. It really allows us to be build a village. It’s very exciting.”
The wastewater project is budgeted at $10.7 million with senior levels of government fronting the cost of it.
“The province and the feds have contributed 7.6,” according to Veenhof. “The residents will contribute about half a million dollars. The rest is picked up by the larger landowners in the Bowser Village Centre who have a development interest.”
Detailed design work is the next step. Veenhof concedes there has been push back on design elements adding they will be addressed during the planning process.
The design work needs to be completed by the spring of 2019 which will be followed by tendering process and ultimately construction.