Q&A: How Should Cobourg Grow?
I recently received a thoughtful email from a Cobourg resident asking several important questions about growth, housing, infrastructure, our downtown and the future of our community.
The questions were prompted by the proposed Brookside Landing development, but they speak to a much bigger conversation we need to have as a community: How should Cobourg grow over the next 10, 20 and even 25 years, and how do we make sure we don't lose what makes Cobourg home along the way?
These are exactly the kinds of conversations I believe we should be having during this election, so I'm sharing the questions and my answers here.
Email questions from a voter:
1. How do you envision Cobourg growing over the next 10–20 years?
Not everything can or should land downtown, and height is part of that conversation. In my view, 12 to 16-storey towers aren't the right fit for Cobourg, particularly at the gateway to our historic downtown.
We need to direct residential growth to appropriate areas, including Cobourg East, while protecting and expanding employment opportunities on our industrial and employment lands and planning for opportunities connected to the future Nagle Road interchange.
One of the priorities of the new Council must be completing an updated Official Plan. We need a clear policy framework that communicates our expectations for growth before more major projects come forward, not after.
Cobourg is growing. That's a fact. But growth doesn't mean compromising who we are, where we've come from or the small-town character that makes this such a great place to live.
2. Have you engaged the community on what residents and business owners want?
Yes, and I believe we need to do much more of it.
As Deputy Mayor and as Council's DBIA representative and Chair, I've sat in those rooms directly with business owners and residents, not just at committee tables.
As Mayor, I'll formalize that engagement through a Resident Budget Advisory Committee and by bringing back citizen advisory committees. That includes reinstating the Planning and Development Advisory Committee.
I supported the governance change that eliminated that committee. I regret that decision, and as Mayor I will work to rectify it.
3. How will you manage housing development to represent the needs of the whole community?
We need housing for different incomes, ages, household sizes and stages of life. That means purpose-built rental, attainable ownership, seniors' housing, family-sized units and genuinely affordable housing.
One of the places municipalities have the greatest opportunity to shape that outcome is through our Official Plan, master plans and secondary plans, like the work underway for the Tannery District. That's where we establish expectations before individual developments arrive asking for changes.
I also don't accept "affordable" simply as a marketing word on a development sign. With Brookside, I think residents deserve a clear answer about how many units, if any, will be secured as genuinely affordable, what affordability measure will be used and how long that affordability will be maintained.
Growth should contribute to solving our housing challenges, not simply increase our unit count.
4. What infrastructure is needed to support projected population growth?
This is exactly why I put forward a motion for a 10-year financial sustainability plan tied to asset management. We cannot approve growth and then figure out water, roads and municipal services after the fact.
I also worked to help secure up to $25 million in provincial Housing-Enabling Water Systems funding because we know infrastructure investment has to accompany growth.
Major growth approvals need to be tied to demonstrated infrastructure capacity and a funded plan for the services required to support them. If that capacity isn't there, that needs to factor into the scale, timing and phasing of development.
5. How will you ensure developers contribute appropriately to infrastructure and services?
We need to use every tool legally available to ensure growth contributes appropriately to the infrastructure it requires, while recognizing that provincial legislation governs development charges, exemptions and when some charges can be collected.
Servicing agreements need to be clear and enforced. Development should be phased alongside actual infrastructure capacity so occupancy doesn't outpace the services supporting it.
I've also worked to secure outside infrastructure funding because neither existing taxpayers nor new homeowners should carry these costs alone.
For major developments like Brookside, I want clear reporting to Council and the public about infrastructure requirements, municipal costs, developer contributions and how the project will be phased.
6. How will you advocate for Downtown Cobourg's heritage core and waterfront?
I previously held the Planning and Heritage portfolio on Council, and I've already taken a public position on the importance of protecting heritage at Brookside, including the future of Strathmore Hall.
I supported the referral of 202 Second Street for a similar reason: to create an opportunity to work toward a better outcome that respects our commercial heritage downtown rather than simply accepting the proposal as presented.
As Council's DBIA representative and Chair, I've spent years working alongside the more than 250 businesses that make our downtown what it is.
Our downtown, waterfront and heritage assets aren't obstacles to economic development. They are some of our greatest economic assets. I'm not willing to trade that identity for development that doesn't respect the street or community it's joining.
7. Where do you stand on Strong Mayor Powers?
I'll delegate those powers back to Council on day one.
I've been clear in my opposition to this legislation since it was first introduced, and I said the same thing when the designation took effect in Cobourg.
Good local decisions come from an elected Council working through them together, transparently and publicly, not from concentrating decision-making power in one office.
