The major debate in the last election was Cochrane’s runaway growth and the resulting traffic mayhem and stress on services. Cochrane residents noticed a shift in how high residential density (eight to 10 units per acre) has made some of our newer communities less “livable.” Recently, we were surprised to learn in the Development Report that previous councils had accumulated 9,500 home approvals. This is essentially a second Cochrane.
At the Jan. 22 Council meeting, Coun. Morgan Nagel valiantly tried to convince the other councillors it was time to face up to this problem and suggested a strategic discussion on the merits of lower residential density targets. In other words, this could be a means to slow the rate of population and vehicle growth to allow infrastructure to catch up.
While virtually every councillor during the election committed to address this growth and infrastructure problem, not one felt they could be party to a discussion to consider lower residential density targets. There were various reasons given; some fearing loss of housing choice, one suggesting we cannot back down on high-density targets and some simply sounding confused. Lower density doesn’t mean we give up housing diversity, but it will slow growth. Given we have 15 years backlog of home approvals on the books, this is vital.
This council should have supported Coun. Nagel in his effort to take the first step to correct a failed Cochrane development plan. Instead, they punted the issue down the road. Hopefully after some sober second thought, all council members will see how critical it is to address our traffic and service infrastructure problems via lower density.
Future letters will deal with other Cochrane development challenges. See the Riverview letter to council at http://riverviewca.ca/community-news.html for more details.
Gerry Ertel, President - Riverview Community Association
