Although I am a general supporter of Coun. Morgan Nagel’s approach to fiscal responsibility; I share David Copper’s doubt that his actions are “entirely selfless” and am saddened to hear that two council members felt so little of your time by sidestepping input from the Cochrane Planning Commission (CPC). I also agree with your statement regarding the RV storage development at the Baptist Seminary, “….when any construction is months away, why the rush?”
I have been privileged enough to be a member of the CPC. To say that I learned a lot in a short amount of time is an understatement. I have to admit that one of the struggles that I felt as a member of this committee was the feeling that whatever issues/concerns/recommendations were brought forth by the CPC; council could simply ignore them, or, whenever concerns were brought forth about developers plans, I was always reminded that the developer would likely win any appeal rising from a CPC decision.
On the one hand, allowing council members the ability to proceed with making decisions independently of a committee with no real authority completely makes sense; after all, these are the elected voices of Cochrane. On the other hand, why is the opinion of an unelected committee that is meant to represent an unbiased and non-partisan voice from the community any less valuable? In light of the questions raised by Mr. Cooper, at the very least, maybe this is a discussion worth having?
Dan Cunin
