The Mayor of Cochrane says even though the town is several months away from launching its $10 residential lot program, it’s still been a massive success. Peter Politis notes the phone has been ringing off the hook with people either looking for information or to be put on a waiting list.
“The program is almost complete and we should be in a position by mid-April-ish or so to launch — and have a complete program that models the community and identifies what neighbourhoods where we expect the housing to be and what type of housing to be there,” he said.
The plan allows people purchase residential lots for just $10 if certain conditions such as a time frame to build. Participates will be eligible for tax rebates over a five-year period.
He says during his trip to Toronto for the Rural Ontario Municipal Association annual meeting last week, a taxi driver was inquiring about Cochrane and the unique plan. Politis adds that locally there has some concerned expressed.
“We’re not going to turn into a large metropolitan centre and we may grow by a few thousand people hopefully,” he said. “But at the end of the day that’s going to contribute to the tax base, it’s going provide new tax dollars and provide more population density to help provide tax relief to the locals and that’s all being done with property we are not doing anything with now.”