The chicken has come home to roost
With the first salvo publicly fired, here , it is obvious that the main culprit is the Town itself. By caving in to each and every developers demand, in the harbourlands redevelopment, over the building period from 1988 to now. The history of the development and Secondary Plans is very simple: the first SP laid out the area with planning permission for 200,000 sq ft of commercial space. The idea being that this area would be a new downtown area. Developers over the last 20 years have found commercial space a hard sell and demanded that more immediate profits accrue therefore constant rezoning demands approved by Councils, reduced the commercial space to "a minimum of 4000 sq ft in each development". Who had the foresight to speculate that there would only be 2 developers for the complete acreage!
So the maximum amount of commercial space is now 8,000 sq ft - a pittance and certainly not big enough for a modern liquor store.
But all is not lost. The largest piece of undeveloped land in the downtown core is the former Quigley Hardware site. In these times of depressed land values it would not be too hard for the Town burghers to contemplate a land aquisition and a public building with commercial space on the ground floor. How about it folks let the seniors play cards on the top two floors and everyone else can buy their booze on the bottom floor. Now that's economic development at work. Hey if the LCBO wants to lease rather than buy then let's lease them a public building.
Just a thought. It's ironic that in the 80's the Town was offered the site by Mr Patchett but the tiny perfect Mayor (in his own mind) Angus Read said no. It's time that that land became public, even if it's 20 years too late.
So the maximum amount of commercial space is now 8,000 sq ft - a pittance and certainly not big enough for a modern liquor store.
But all is not lost. The largest piece of undeveloped land in the downtown core is the former Quigley Hardware site. In these times of depressed land values it would not be too hard for the Town burghers to contemplate a land aquisition and a public building with commercial space on the ground floor. How about it folks let the seniors play cards on the top two floors and everyone else can buy their booze on the bottom floor. Now that's economic development at work. Hey if the LCBO wants to lease rather than buy then let's lease them a public building.
Just a thought. It's ironic that in the 80's the Town was offered the site by Mr Patchett but the tiny perfect Mayor (in his own mind) Angus Read said no. It's time that that land became public, even if it's 20 years too late.
4 comments:
If I were the LCBO I'd build in Hamilton Township and tell the town and DBIA where to get off.
Slowly, very slowly, but very surely, the developments on the outskirts, such as Strathy Rd., are chipping away at the concept of the 'main central area' being the main central area as defined in the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS). Now we will see the Town put forward weak and ill-fated efforts to stop the erosion that they deliberately supported in the aim to make Cobourg a regional centre, and for short-term benefit at that. The long-term costs will far outweigh the benefits that may have accrued. One can only say "We told you so!"
PS - Why is it that some people don't have sufficient conviction in their opinion to put their name to it? Why should such opinions be published or even matter then?
I agree that the "usual suspects" will often put their real names to a post, it is also true that some will never do so. Perhaps they have thinner skins or want to act like the usual "flamers" so that they feel that they can say what they want without personal retribution. Either way I don't care letting each comment stand or fall on its content! Unless of course it is highly personal or malicious in intent, and I get to judge
Manfred's perception is sadly correct. The downtown of Cobourg will evolve to a Black Creek Village.
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