Cochrane struggles with growth and traffic

Should Cochrane become a city?

That's a question being asked by one town councillor who says traffic is the number one concern in the ever-expanding bedroom community northwest of Calgary.

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"I think the first and most obvious solution would be to have the province help us in twinning the highways that go through our town, because our entire community bottlenecks on these two highways," said Morgan Nagelon the issue of congestion.

He wants the province to foot the bill for the twinning in Cochrane and then proposes the new City of Cochranewould take over the roadways and maintain them.

He says the municipalitywould have more control and more options if it were acity.

Infrastructure

Nagel also says the town bears some responsibilities for upgrading infrastructure to ease the traffic woes.

"We need to complete a second bridge, we need to get some more railroad crossings," he said.

The town has faced "unprecedented growth," according to Nagel.

"In the last two years we've grown 23 per cent," he said."One in four people who live here today weren't here two years ago."

Simply increasing public transit won't necessarily help he says, due toa combination of commuters going back and forth between Calgary and Cochrane, as well as a steady stream of tourists travelling to and from the Rockies.

Restrict growth?

So what about restricting the population byreining in development?

"I would never propose that we should stop development in Cochrane, I think development and progress is good for the community," he said.

"But I do think growing at double-digit rates every single year is pretty unsustainable and just an unrealistic thing for us to continue doing."

Nagel said he wouldlike to see agrowth rate around five to eight per cent per year.