Council recently approved the Area Structure Plan (ASP) for Greystone, the development located on the former Burnco Gravel Pit lands. An ASP is the highest level planning document for a community and identifies suitable land uses, park/open spaces, transportation networks and other key elements within the community. Next in the process is the Neighborhood Plan (NP) where we zoom in with more detail. Step three is Land Use approval, where even more details are provided. This third step is where council has all the control to set the stage for what our future community will look like and control the speed at which it is delivered to market. If you read the news that council approved another development, you are only partly correct — there are two more important stages still to come. One thing Greystone will provide is much needed commercial and light industrial zonings. Cochrane needs more commercial and light industrial areas to provide space for our existing businesses to grow and for new businesses to locate. And the off-site levies the developer pays will contribute millions of dollars to our infrastructure upgrades (new bridge, innovation center, Center Avenue widening, etc). You said you wanted us to focus on traffic, this is how we pay for it without affecting taxes. Greystone is redeveloping a gravel pit that returned very little revenue to Cochrane and turning it into a contributing, vibrant, business park and future residential development. The development will utilize infrastructure already in place – unlike most new developments that force our community to broaden our town footprint even further, by requiring an expanded network of pipes and roads. Once Greystone meets the requirements of two more stages, the first construction will commence next year with lands available for business likely the year after. Any residential zonings, if given land use, would not see people living in them for three or more years. I would like to see us get caught up on our roads prior to seeing too much more residential development. My election campaign ran on a platform of putting the people of Cochrane first. The people who live here now, today. Our focus is on any development coming to council chambers from beginning to end: thoughtful, well-planned developments that meet the needs of this community as a whole. You as residents of this community deserve my very best efforts as your mayor to see this vision through. What we approved for Greystone at our last council meeting has not jeopardized this in any way.
