It’s time for mayor and council to seriously rethink our approach to residential development.
Cochrane’s population has been exploding for several years, and there is a long list of negative side effects building up alongside the growth: Our roads are far beyond their capacity. Our schools are overflowing with students. Our RCMP and bylaw officers are overworked. The small town feel that attracted us all to this great little town is being destroyed. And, perhaps most concerning is a topic that we haven’t discussed at all, that the value of local property is being eroded.
I truly believe that we are flooding Cochrane’s real estate market, and obliterating homeowner equity. I don’t believe the government should regularly pursue protectionist-pricing policies, but I believe the magnitude of development in Cochrane warrants consideration. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that our build-and-spend approach is irresponsible.
Our current approach to residential development is also completely unsupported by the people of Cochrane. Every chance residents get to provide feedback, they are telling us to stop approving the never-ending developments. When land near GlenEagles was being looked at for development, dozens of community members showed up to the council chambers to say no. When another big proposal came forward beside Riverview, the council meeting was packed full of families who want us to say no. At the Cochrane Trade Show, family after family came up to me and asked me to keep on pushing back against the development industry. This past week, I reached out on a large Cochrane-based Facebook group to ask residents how they feel about development and more than 100 people chimed in to say ‘no.’ Every time this topic comes up the message is clear: the people of this town do not want Cochrane to become a big cookie-cutter suburb.
I must be clear that I do believe a responsible amount of growth is a good thing. We should encourage a reasonable number of new residents to come to Cochrane every year. But that does not mean we need to approve every single proposal that comes across our desks. There comes a point where mayor and council must say enough is enough; we have already approved enough new houses for the next few years. I am certain we have passed that point.
