Cochrane council recently approved the Transit Feasibility Study; with council's approval, administration will now amend a 9 million dollar application for provincial GreenTRIP funding.

The funding which was approved in 2011 was to be used to create regional and local transit. While the Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP) is taking on regional, the amendment will change the application allowing these funds to concentrate on developing a local transit plan before 2021.

Cochrane council was able to view a few different scenarios for local transit, while there is nothing concrete it gets conversation rolling, which in Mayor Ivan Brooker's eyes, is a good thing.

"I am actually excited to review this again. I was obviously not a proponent of transit when it was in front of council four years ago, but the community has grown an awful lot since then and what I said back then and what I am still saying when we do implement transit it just has to make better sense than the original proposal. The original proposal was so limiting that I just felt it didn't service enough of the potential needs, and so it shouldn't move forward at that time."

With taking regional service out of the equation, council is able to concentrate on local service. Mayor Brooker does not anticipate any hang ups with the amended plan and says once the province 'yays or nays' the town's application to use the funding toward local transit, public consultation will begin.

"We will go back out to the public to say is this of interest? Does this plan make sense for the community as we sit today?"

While not all council supports the idea of transit, as the community grows so does the request and need.

"We are a growing community, a lot of younger families, a lot of seniors. I hear all the time when I go down to Seniors on the Bow in my meetings with them that the need is continuing to grow and especially now that we get the aquatic and curling centre down there, there is likely a greater need for seniors and youth to access that facility. You do have to look into the future, maybe if we have that service even more families and youth will look to Cochrane as a potential place that they could age in place if they had the ability to get around town."

Brooker says while he knows transit is not going to pay for itself even remotely close, he feels it is providing social needs to the community.

"You have to look at the greater good for the community.

At this point when public consultation will begin remains unknown; Brooker encourages community members to begin messaging council with what they would like to see.

Council reviewed three conceptual plans which looked at everything from servicing all communities to only traveling during peak times, with three varied price points.

To voice your opinion you can let council know.

ross.watson@cochrane.ca

MaryLou.Davis-Eckmeier@cochrane.ca

tara.mcfadden@cochrane.ca

gaynor.levisky@cochrane.ca

jeff.toews@cochrane.ca

morgan.nagel@cochrane.ca

ivan.brooker@cochrane.ca

 

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