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| Birch Bay Village History Tidbits |
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 When Keith Colman and Howard Riddell first broke ground on the 'Village' in 1966 they had a wonderful dream. They wanted to develop a community that would become one of the outstanding planned communities in the country. They described it in the earliest sales brochures as 'An Ideal Spot To Live, Play and Retire'. Imagine if you had the forsight they had and actually purchased a waterfront lot for as little as $8000.00.
Did you know that in 1977 Thunderbird Lake did not even exist and that the marina was 1/2 it's current size. In fact , Coquitlam, and Coquitlam Place were not even built yet.
Can you spot where the original Clubhouse and pool were located? (Hint: Look for the cute Panabode Cedar log home on Cowichan Rd.)
At one time long before the Village appeared this was a farm and if you kindly asked the owner to cut across his land to the beach you could fill a gunny sack with oysters for only a $1.50 doantion to his farm. The original farm water well was redicsovered just 2 years ago on a building lot on Comox where a brand new house was recently constructed.
The original developers wife, Doreen Coleman used to land her float plane on Kwann Lake and often would bring it into the marina as well. Up until just a few years ago the orange wind sock still flew in the vicinity of the current flag poles. Speaking of the flag poles, if you haven't already, please check out the memorial plaque that is dedicted to the original developer located near the base of the flag pole adjacent to the Village office.
Did you know that winters used to be much colder here in Birch Bay in the 60's and early seventies? In fact members used to ice skate on Kwann Lake and on occasion would line up cars to illuminate the lake at night for fun skating.
There are a number of ancient archeological sensitive zones in the Village both along the waterfront and up in the wooded area. Mike Kent has maps of these locations that were provided to him a number of years ago along with probably the most extensive collection of Village memorabilia donated by the vast number of clients who have moved way over the years or sold their summer homes. He is working on developing a book about Birch Bay Village and the neighbors down through the years who have made it both interesting and special.
I'll bet you may not have known that a television star resided here for over a year and enjoyed both the security and anonymity the Village provided. Most people know that hockey Legend Brett Hull also owned a home on lower Nakat for several years.
At one time Birch Bay Village was more than 70% Canadian owned and was primarily a summer retreat of vacation homes that made for very quiet winters. Today fewer than 300 owners are absentee owners with the number of permanent residents growing each month.
In the past few years people from California, New Jersey, New York, Boston, Denver, Billings and other out of area locales have made Birch Bay VIllage their home.
One great statistic is that Birch Bay Village has one of the lowest rates of people leaving here than any neighborhood in Whatcom County, that speaks well of all the Village has to offer. In fact roughly 1 out of 5 home sales are people moving within the Village, either downsizing or upsizing.
Our dues are 50% of Associations of our size nationally and we are one of the few associations in the country that have avoided the need for special assessments to keep up with operating expenses.
The original developers surely would be pleased with how their dream has evolved and most of us would agree that it is one of the outstanding planned communties if not in the country, certainly in the Pacific Northwest.
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First manager for BBV
The first hired manager for BBV Community Association was Wes Hunter. He was hired by the association and managed the community affairs during the transition from the developer to the association. Reportedly, this was the first major homeowners association on the west coast to transition from the developer without litigation.
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