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Letters to the Editor
A collection of Letters sent to the Editor of Cobourg News Blog and provided as a service to Cobourg residents.
Note that opinions expressed in letters are those of the author and may or may not be my opinions.
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- 496
As someone who is walking King Street East more days of the week than not, I am pretty disappointed with the new owners of Brookside, Terraco Development. They have cleared the sidewalks on King and Cottesmore once this winter, leaving snow and ice to build up otherwise.
I have been repeatedly in touch with the town, as well as reaching out to Terraco Development via the email listed on their website. Terraco has not responded at all to any emails. On January 21, a bylaw officer told me that the town had been in touch with the owner, and that they had been told a company had been retained for sidewalk maintenance. Unfortunately, several snowfalls since then and nothing.
This is a danger to seniors and those with reduced mobility in Cobourg, and it contravenes the town's property standards bylaw.
If Terraco is hoping to establish good community relationships and be a part of this community, they're not off to a good start.
Bob LeDrew.
- 1142
Dear Sir
I am writing to comment on a couple of things, one is to congratulate and support Richard Pope in his efforts to advance the public's interest in the problems of the Public Works being conducted at the West Harbour Headlands and secondly to point out that his frustration in not being able to engage with Council on this matter was foreseen.
Richard has pointed out in great detail the jurisdictional matter of the lands - are they in the Nature park or not as well as laying out the damages done to the land by the Public Works.
But Richard's efforts to engage with Council have been reduced to writing a letter to the Editor because of the changes made to the Procedural Bylaw this time last year. As I write in a blog post about this issue and I quote:
- 1912
Many people in the community were upset about the removal of the sand willows on the West Headland. They were upset about the dredging and angry that no one knew about this in advance. Then people (myself included) were stunned to learn that the dredged area has somehow been excluded from the Waterfront Nature Park, which even Council did not know about. When Council voted to create the Nature Park, they thought this area was included in it.
After mulling this over, I thought I should give people a heads-up on the plans for the area because much worse is yet to come and the public is apparently not going to be shown an action plan with a timeline for what is planned. The intent of this memo, however, is not to criticize forth-coming action but to focus public attention and the attention of Council on how we can salvage the West Headland and re-naturalize it after the damage is done. There is light at the end of the tunnel and the public can help to ensure that this light gets to shine.
- 2535
Like many others in Town, I have been following the news around the redevelopment of the Brookside property with some interest. To comment on your December 3rd post regarding the recently announced identity of the purchaser, I am left still asking the question WHO HAS ACTUALLY PURCHASED BROOKSIDE?
Terraco Developments Inc. is apparently based in Concord, but beyond that there seem to be few details available about the company. Their website provides very little in the way of information and no specifics. There is no information on how long the company has been in business or their past record as a developer. There is no personal information on the principals who own the company or on any of their staff - no biographies or pictures of their project managers, engineers, planners or architects. There is no portfolio of past projects that the company has completed. No information on the "exciting and innovative developments" the company claims to have been part of. The images illustrating the site are generic open-sourced files pulled from Shutterstock or other sources, including the websites of other planning and development companies. There does not seem to be a single image of, or information on, an actual project Terraco Developments has been responsible for.
All of this seems highly unusual to me, and leaves me with more questions than answers. I am also surprised that a telephone call to the number listed for the company seems to connect me to a personal cell phone and not to an office. The gentleman answering had lots of questions about who I was and the purpose of my call, but wouldn't answer any questions. He directed me to send an email addressed to "Michael" - no last name given. All very mysterious! Email sent, I await a reply from this secretive company.
The 'false front' design of the company's website and lack of any credible history or information on personnel makes me wonder if Brookside has been sold to a shell company of some kind. It also makes me wonder if Infrastructure Ontario followed proper due diligence in identifying this company as their preferred purchaser, and if the Town of Cobourg properly investigated them during conversations leading up to the Brookside purchase. In the coming months I look forward to learning who has actually purchased the property, what their background as a developer is, and what their plans are for Brookside.
Ken Forsyth
[Editor's note: Link to December 3rd Post]
- 1584
Preserve Our Heritage Harbour, a citizen's advocacy group, has urgent concerns about the recent destruction at Cobourg's cherished Waterfront Nature Park.
From damaged ecosystems to a lack of transparency in decision-making, the community feels sidelined and unheard. As advocates for a sustainable and inclusive future, Preserve Our Heritage Harbour urges Cobourg Council to update the public on plans for the Waterfront Nature Park (and its immediate environs) and reinstate community involvement.
As background, in Council on November 20, 2024, Councillor Mutton put forth a motion requesting "the Director of Community Services to formalize an interim management plan for the tracking and management of the [Waterfront RP] Nature Park in order to protect the valuable parkland asset and to keep the public informed … ."
This seemed like a rather innocuous request considering the great interest in this park among the public at large and the naturalist community in particular.