The Town of Cobourg has many “Master Plans” detailing what should be done on various assets and areas. I count eleven multi-year Master plans that describe what to do about Downtown, Heritage, Culture, the Tannery Property, Transportation (including Transit), Parks, Tree coverage (Urban Forest), the Waterfront, Downtown parking, Fire and Accessibility. The plans include goals and timelines intended to guide staff over multiple years but in general, there are no regular reports on whether the goals are being met or indeed if there is any progress. The Operational Plan recently established includes reports on KPIs but there seem to be few if any references to Master Plans. I have made a list of the plans and where they can be found and listed them on Cobourg Internet – see link below.
To be fair, many of the plans are overdue for update. However, to pre-empt the likely comments, perhaps staff can do that without hiring a consultant.
There are other related documents that have been produced but they are not “MASTER” plans – they are annual plans, strategies and policies and although they are quite useful, they are not multi-year plans describing goals and actions. The Town lists these (plus master plans) here. In addition, a new plan/revision will be happening soon for Parks. And I believe an IT master plan was budgeted and perhaps already completed. (As someone who is aware of Internet issues, I must note that any IT plan that addresses security should not be published!)
Go to the page with Master Plans on Cobourg Internet.
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Hello
Re Parking near waterfront by Old YMCA
This summer before 8 pm we went to walk along the board walk. As my husband uses a walker/cane we chose handicap spot. Beside us a van w older ladies from Brighton were returning with walkers and smiles. Smiles evaporated w a $160 ticket. They had not seen a sign to pay due to a tree branch and it was after 6 so assumed ok to park! The officer was in the lot also giving a ticket for a shirtless man who had brought all his family and beach stuff to the vehicle. His mistake resulted in a $160 ticket for taking a quick bathroom break behind his vehicle! Parking officer even called police when the man asked about it. The bylaw officer in his call we overheard suggested he may have been drinking! A double hit – thankful this was not the case.
Truly as a citizen I felt embarrassed for the senior ladies from Brighton and the tourist who needed relief. Place a porta potty at the lot or does the Y offer bathroom use? A warning might have sufficed but I felt a little nervous getting John’s walker out to head for a walk after seeing the officer in action! Of course we paid as it was before 8 pm!
When do average citizens get to enjoy our beach and park close enough to use one of the handicap spots without concern? Why is it 8pm and why can’t locals have a car sticker if the town is going for full pay from tourists re parking?
Perhaps a solution could be found that makes the parking lot across from post office the larger lot and add handicap designations to the closer Y lot please.
As noted the aging population is growing and yet do parking spots designated reflect this growth?
Agree about the Ladies from Brighton; don’t agree with you about the Tourist. There are plenty of restrooms between the beach and that lot; and the BL officer probably stopped someone from driving while drunk.
1,300 pages of outdated information, averaging 6 years old and one plan is 13 years old (Transportation). In the last 13 years we’ve had 3 Municipal elections, significant residential development, some commercial development, population growth, the introduction of EV’s Canada and declared a climate crisis yet none of this created a reason to update the Transportation Plan? I may be missing something so please correct me if I’m wrong.
The only file the current iteration of Council appears to have updated is Parking – and I suspect only because its a source of revenue. A file, I might, that has been wholly mismanaged and created more angst for taxpayers without any benefit. If fact the current parking bylaws tied to the Plan, take away benefits from taxpayers and cost us money.
By my count there were/are:
9 Plan (under various names)
6 Master Plans
4 Strategy(ies)
3 Studies
2 Other
Lots and lots of ancillary ‘promised’ efforts in support of the above. Given the tens of thousands of dollars spent I’m disheartened to learn that “..there are no regular reports on whether the goals are being met or indeed if there is any progress.” I know that the current CAO and the Mayor probably don’t feel accountable for many of these initiatives, but where does this leave us, the citizens and funding agents for these efforts? Certainly the Dept heads should be held, as a minimum, accountable for ensuring these responsibilities are tracked. We’ve got a new communications person, why not assign the task of gathering this information/status to this person.
John, are you aware that the parking lot across the street from the Rink/ Farmers Market has posted signs that says one must pay to park there on Saturday and Sunday using the HONK APP.
The sign doesn’t mention the cost per hour.
Bob & I were shocked to see this as we walked by this morning.
This is not mentioned on the Town’s 2024 Parking Guide on the Town’s Parking web page. But the lot is privately owned so it’s possible they can charge. I would think they would have to enforce themselves. It’s not mentioned in the Downtown parking study. I also note that in 2023, the Town permitted the owner (Balder Corp) to charge for parking for 2 weekends in August. (News report here). Maybe they have allowed that again in 2024? If so, it has not been announced.
Do the Privately owned lots Need permission to charge ??
if and when the Town leases expire .
The 3 lots that come to mind now would be the Balder Lot , Farmers Market Lot, Post Office Lot on the north side of Queen
there may be more ?
My understanding is that the current lease permits the owner of the Albert Street lot to charge on w/es – at their discretion. I do not know about the other lots you mention.
I have had some communications with Council members and Brent Latimer about the confusing signs in that parking lot. I think the parking sign is intended to cover those occasions when the private company (owner) wishes to charge parking on the long w/es and special events but otherwise the lot is free for 2 hours. The signage is definitely confusing. In response, I was advised by one Councillor that the parking “issues” are under study but I got no clarification of whether my assumption about the intent of that sign was correct or not.
Yesterday I e-mailed the Town again about the signage on the north side of King Street East near MacCoubrey’s where they have installed some individual parking meters which apparently do not issue printed tickets but the signage above says to put your printed receipt on your dash. Go figure! (To add to the confusion, those meters also do not seem to show how much time you have bought or have left. Presumably the by-law enforcement folks are the only ones that can read the meter time. I assume this is to prevent others using your unused time if you vacate the spot! i.e. nickling and diming every minute.) The confusing and conflicting signage certainly doesn’t encourage one to visit the downtown.. esp if one ends up with a $140 parking fine for not understanding when one has to pay and when one doesn’t.
If it was not for the Parking Fine income and a couple of other nickel dime operations they have developed how else would the By Law Dept support or Justify their existence . They sure don’t catch speeders and Loud vehicles .
Just look at the Weeds on First st sidewalk south of Albert
they Ticket cars here every day but not themselves
A lot of Talk and No Action
A lot of Consulting Fees and No Results
A lot of Taxes and Nothing to Show for It .
Leaves me with a lot of Questions ???????????
Agreed!!! We need to implement solutions, not just study them.