The Capital Regional District (CRD) is budgeting upwards of $70,000 for a Bowker Creek watershed ‘daylighting’ feasibility study, Citified has learned.

 

Known as the practice of expanding access to, restoring and beautifying natural features such as urban waterways and greenways, daylighting has been used in cities throughout the world to reclaim under-utilized urban spaces typically in-tandem with real-estate development efforts and changes to land use patterns.

 

In the case of the Bowker Creek watershed – which originates atop Mt. Tolmie and Cedar Hill in Saanich, converges near Cedar Hill Road at Finlayson Street in the City of Victoria and flows into the sea near Glenlyon-Norfolk School in Oak Bay – the CRD is looking to identify a daylighting route for the waterway which is currently comprised of culverted sections and as an exposed creek throughout the three municipalities.

 

The feasibility study is intended to assist municipal planners in developing daylighting strategies as adjacent lands are re-examined alongside development proposals and infrastructure upgrades.

 

“On a broad scale this project will include documenting the role of land use planning and infrastructure redevelopment planning in the daylighting effort,” states a request for proposal (RFP) document released by the CRD. The study is also intended to identify “the best long-term route for a daylighting corridor for the creek, [assess] options for incorporating green corridors (i.e. park trails beside the creek) and [assess] creek detention/constructed wetlands options.”

 

The CRD expects the study to commence in February with a submission of findings in October.

 

Named after American settler John Sylvester Bowker who settled on southern Vancouver Island in the 1860s, Bowker Creek was once a source of coho salmon, chum salmon and cutthroat trout for local indigenous peoples and supported an extensive Garry Oak ecosystem. Today approximately 50% of the Bowker Creek watershed is composed of impervious surfaces such as roads and parking lots. C

 

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