The juxtaposition of Mayor Ivan Booker’s and Councillor Morgan Nagel’s viewpoints on the effects of a freeze on development calls for thoughtful responses from citizens of Cochrane.
Nagel’s view highlights the importance of infrastructure issues with which the current council, in its laisse-faire attitude toward development, has simply failed to come to grips.
One result of this approach has resulted in traffic problems that are best characterized as chaotic. While a complete freeze on development does seem to be a somewhat draconian position, sometimes it does take such measures (e.g., cutting up credit cards as a first step to getting out of debt) to get back on the right track.
What is the right track? One that would see considered development with the ensuing infrastructure demands it presents clearly presented and appropriately allocated. These include: gas, water, sewer, waste removal, sidewalks, streetlights, protective and emergency services, administrative overhead, and the like.
Some foresight regarding the maintenance costs of such infrastructure would be welcomed. Mayor Booker asks us to trust in his leadership in his current discussions with six development groups to secure land for the new Bow River Bridge.
If the past is any prediction of how well Mayor Booker has served our needs as taxpayers and citizens of Cochrane, we should be wary of the outcome.
Theresa Kline
