Construction coming to the Common Areas of Mansons Landin

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Close to 50 people turned up at Mansons Hall on January 24, for an update on the construction coming or already underway in the downtown Mansons area. The Cortes Housing Society, Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA), Cortes Island Community Foundation and Cortes Island Pickleball Society were on hand to describe what’s taking place at Rainbow Ridge, the multipurpose courts and the Village Commons. 

 Regional Director Mark Vonesch exclaimed, “The big news here on Cortes is that the Housing Society is going to start building houses this year.”

Sandra Wood, who's been at the heart of the Rainbow Ridge affordable housing project from the beginning, added, “It's exciting to finally get shovels in the ground. We feel like we've been shovel ready for years.”  

Manda Aufochs Gillespie, from the Cortes Island Foundation, described another focus of the meeting “More and more, it's clear that the Village Commons is really this whole area and all the things that we gather in the heart of Mansons to do.”

She mentioned the shared office and workspace which was close to completion beside FOCI, the CKTZ radio station and the little green with a picnic table.

“The space is opened up so that you can get into that area where the pavilion is basically breaking ground as we speak. So by the summer, the pavilion will be up, wired into the radio station, and set up for performances. We also have put in these storage spaces. We have signed a lease for two of them with the Cortes Island Food Bank, as a drop off and distribution center, but also just to expand their capacity. The other two we're hoping will be for non-profit and the public because, as we all know, somehow on this island there is never enough space.”

 “This whole space has largely been possible because the SCCA was like, ‘yes, let's think about parking as a community effort downtown.’ Which I've really appreciated because before it looked like we would have to use a whole huge chunk of that rather small space for parking. There has been the creation of a set of new parking spaces, which is going to be  signed, I think, by this summer.”

Cora Moret, from the SCCA, continued,  “I love the idea that this is all the Village Commons and that all these nonprofits are looking for the same thing, which is the Cortes community. So why would each place have a separate parking lot? It's all within a few dozen metres of each other.” 

“There is a sign  as you come up past this parking lot, directly to the west of the parking lot between the skate park and the fire hall.  It just looks like  a cleared gravel area, and we'll work on that. What we'd like to see is an area that is central , that  could host some EV charging stations. That hopefully is coming in the near future. BC Hydro wants to pay for these but they have  certain parameters around them. So we're working on that too.”

“We're going to be bringing in more grant projects for  the area between the skate park and the parking lot. We are very open to input. We're happy to hear what you think of what we're doing, what you think we should do or could do.”

The main interview was with Sadhu Johnston from the Cortes Island Housing Society.