Save Our Belcarra South Cottage Community!

We are a small community living in seven waterfront cottages that will be demolished if Metro Vancouver Regional Parks proceeds with plans to expand into the Belcarra South area of Belcarra Park.

Once a lively summer cottage settlement located on the shore of Indian Arm, Belcarra South has evolved into a year-round community that reflects its simple origins going back to the 1920s and 1930s. With few modern conveniences, our footprint on the land is very small.

The cottages and the property have historic ties to Judge William Norman Bole who named the area Belcarra in the late 1800s, and whose son, J. Percy Hampton Bole, built the two-storey Bole House, now a Canada Historic Place, and an eighth residence in Belcarra South.

In 1976, following expropriation of the property, the cottages and the Bole House, Metro Vancouver Parks made a first attempt to have the cottages torn down. In response, the existing community of residents formed the Belcarra South Preservation Society with the sole purpose of preserving the cottages. We continue today to work cooperatively to manage and maintain the cottages, the one-lane gravel access road, and a shared Small Water System that services the cottages and the Bole House.   

In February 2013, the Society received notice that its lease with Metro Vancouver would end on August 31, 2013. Formally appealing this notice through local municipalities and Metro Vancouver authorities, we were granted a ten-month extension to June 30, 2014 but the cabins will, according to the Metro Vancouver Board of Directors...not be retained. We continue in our efforts to save our community, but time is running out.

To find out more about us and to see the cottages that we have lovingly maintained, some of us for over fifty years, please visit our website at www.belcarrasouth.ca and our Facebook page at facebook.com/belcarrasouth

More Updates

Our Lease Was Reinstated on April 1, 2015

Six months after our hearing at the Residential Tenancy Branch in September 2014, Metro Vancouver withdrew their petition to the BC Supreme Court and reinstated our lease. For now, we continue to live in and maintain the cottages on a month-to-month basis while Metro Vancouver Regional Parks staff refocuses their efforts on developing a new plan for park expansion into Belcarra South. 

Belcarra South Cottages Receive Heritage Protection

On April 28, 2015, Port Moody City Council passed Heritage Bylaw 3006 (Belcarra Cottages) that protects the six cottages located in Port Moody from demolition. These cottages are also included in the City's Heritage Register. Of note, the Statement of Significance for heritage status as submitted by Don Luxton & Associates recognizes the Belcarra South Preservation Society residents for preserving and maintaining the cottages for over four decades. 

On June 23, 2014, the Village of Belcarra approved heritage status for the one cottage in Belcarra, Mayo Point Lodge, requesting up to 120 days protection from demolition. This protection has run out and has not been renewed as yet. We still hold out hope that Belcarra Mayor and Council will renew their support for heritage preservation within Belcarra and the wider region.

Belcarra South Expansion Plan

On March 1, 2017, Metro Vancouver Parks Committee approved a plan to tear down five of the six remaining cottages in Belcarra South, despite the City of Port Moody's heritage bylaw that protects them from demolition!  Further, Metro Vancouver's public engagement process of 2016 indicated strong support for retaining the cottages--74% of respondents according to Metro's own survey data. 

The plan is going forward to Metro Vancouver Board on March 31. Regardless of any decision, we feel Metro Vancouver needs to address heritage in regional parks in a more meaningful way. 

To:  Mayor Greg Moore, Chair, Metro Vancouver Board of Directors; and Councillor Heather Deal, Chair, Metro Vancouver Environment and Parks Committee


I understand that the seven leased cottages in Belcarra South are at risk of being demolished by Metro Vancouver Regional Parks. Not only will a summer cottage settlement that dates back to the 1920s and 1930s vanish but the active year-round community of residents who live there now will be forced from their homes. 


The Belcarra South Preservation Society was incorporated in 1976 by the residents to preserve the cottages and their local history.  Residents today still carry out this mandate and should be recognized for their part in the continuum of settlement on Indian Arm, also the traditional land of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation.


As a cooperative community, the residents of Belcarra South rely on one another and work together on community projects and infrastructure including a shared water system and access road. They embody values common to successful communities the world over; these values are something to be encouraged and celebrated, not dismantled.


Almost all of British Columbia’s former summer cottage communities have been replaced by larger, grander homes. There has been little will or inclination to retain individual cottages and even less effort to preserve small, intact communities.


Together, Mayor Moore and Councillor Deal, you have a unique opportunity to show vision and creativity by preserving the Belcarra South cottage community; by revoking the planned demolition of the cottages; and by allowing the tenants who have loved and maintained the cottages – some of them for three generations – to remain in their homes.


I urge you to take this opportunity for once the cottages are gone, part of the history of Indian Arm disappears with them.

Update #47 years ago
We have REOPENED our petition as Metro Vancouver Regional Parks is once again moving ahead with an expansion plan that will demolish six heritage cottages in Belcarra Regional Park.
All are tenanted.

On March 31, we invite you LIVE STREAM the Metro Vancouver Board (Parks) Meeting to see how their plan, not compliant with City of Port Moody's heritage bylaws, is received. If approved, it could set a precedent that threatens not only Belcarra South, but heritage protection in the region!

Update #39 years ago
WE'RE STILL HERE--KEEP SIGNING AND SHARING OUR PETITION! At their June 27th meeting, the GVRD Board directed Metro Vancouver staff once again to "explore options for retention of the cabins" including speaking with the municipalities of Belcarra and Port Moody over the summer. Meanwhile residents continue to remain on the property while awaiting a decision from the Residential Tenancy Branch. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR 80-YEAR OLD COMMUNITY!
Update #29 years ago
The June 27 GVRD Board decision may save the cottages, but tenants must move out right away. We are proud of our efforts and our appeal to save this heritage community. If we had simply left last August, the cottages would have been torn down without any public awareness.

Thanks to everyone who signed our petition, visited the cottages, or advocated on our behalf over the past very hectic and perplexing sixteen months. We still have some options so PLEASE KEEP SIGNING UNTIL JULY 15!
Update #19 years ago
Today’s headlines: “Belcarra cottagers 10 days away from eviction!” The Society put forward a proposal to Metro Van Environment and Parks Committee on June 5 which the Committee did not support. We’ve been told our eviction date of June 30 stands and utilities will be cut off and cottages secured soon after! We have many advocates and persevere in our efforts to encourage fair process and reconsideration for retaining the cottages...and the cottagers.

Please share our petition! IT’S URGENT!
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