It's unfortunate Coun. Morgan Nagel's motion to freeze residential development is presented as both threat and pressure for the province to spend even more money on more roads.
A better approach would be to present the motion as a viable and realistic planning alternative. No more residential growth is needed in Cochrane. It is perfectly viable healthy community the size it is today. Cochrane town staff could be redeployed from residential planning to providing services or working in facilities that help existing residents. Many of the longer term residents could also tell you that Cochrane was a wonderful town in year 2000 and 1980. Cochrane is not a better community just because it is bigger.
Let's step back from the presumption that population growth is beneficial, necessary, or even desirable. Stop approving residential developments that increase taxes for existing residents. Stop approving residential developments that are overcrowding schools, roads, and recreation facilities in Cochrane. Stop subsidizing population growth through provincial infrastructure spending, federal tax breaks for families and local development levies that bring in far less revenue than the costs of providing new infrastructure.
I admire Coun. Nagel's motion but as a person responsible for his community's future it's too bad he doesn't see freezing residential development as legitimate planning tool. Don't freeze development until the province builds roads, freeze development until you have substantial evidence that it will make existing Cochranites lives better in some tangible way.
John McMurray
