My thoughts on the use of an Interim Control By-Law

A lot of you have reached out this week about the Interim Control By-law question, and many have shared the Burd Report’s coverage on the topic since July. In hindsight, we should have made a resolution on it then.

I want to be upfront about where I stand before today’s Special Council Meeting.

Cobourg’s Official Plan is sixteen years old. It was not built for the pace, scale or complexity of development we’re seeing today.

We need housing. We need investment. We need responsible growth. But we also need modern planning rules that give residents, developers, staff and Council clarity about where that growth belongs, what form it should take, and how it fits into the neighbourhoods around it.

The motion on today’s agenda identifies the problem, but I don’t believe it goes far enough to solve it. As I read it, it asks staff and legal counsel to advise Council on whether an Interim Control By-law is necessary, with no firm date attached to that decision, while development continues under a planning framework we already know needs updating.

I believe Council should take a more decisive approach.

Council should direct a focused, town-wide land use study as part of the Official Plan Review already underway, examining residential intensification across Cobourg, including building height, massing, types of housing, neighbourhood transition and appropriate locations for greater density.

At the same time, I believe Council should use the authority available under Section 38 of Ontario’s Planning Act and enact a town-wide Interim Control By-law, effective immediately, with its precise scope developed with the advice of our planning lawyer. It is a temporary tool that gives us time to do the work properly, with a clear work plan, public consultation and a firm timeline to bring updated planning recommendations back to Council.

Council doesn’t write the technical planning provisions or provide the legal opinion. But it is our job to make the policy decision and give staff clear direction to implement it lawfully.

The purpose isn’t to stop growth. It’s to make sure that while we decide what responsible growth should look like for the next generation of Cobourg, we aren’t making those decisions under rules written for the Cobourg of sixteen years ago.

This isn’t about saying no to housing or closing the door on investment. It’s about clearer rules, greater certainty and making sure growth strengthens Cobourg rather than simply happening to Cobourg.

We are being asked to make generational decisions in the midst of a municipal election. Decisions of this magnitude should not be rushed, and residents deserve the confidence of knowing we took the time to get them right. I don’t believe we need another open-ended process to determine whether we should eventually act when we have the opportunity to act now.

Cobourg will grow. Our responsibility is to make sure it grows well.