(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
Today’s Northumberland spent a few minutes with Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland on Sunday, September 7, 2025.
Cleveland said he’s been checking in with Cobourg residents throughout the summer asking what’s on their minds.
“I wanted to check in with Cobourg. It’s about meeting the people on the street. It’s about taking it to the doors to hear directly from residents what’s going well, what’s not going well and where we can make improvements.”
Cleveland said he will be coming out with a report on what’s he’s learned, but the main theme seems to be taxes and afford ability.
Which is giving him the opportunity to explain the community lead task force.
“For the first time ever have 10 or 11 very diverse community members all going into a room with a consultant to give us a report as to what the community, without political influence and without staff influence think we should be doing financially.”
One of the main focuses Cleveland has heard is that Cobourg can’t keep raising its taxes.
“We need to keep driving it down and that requires difficult decisions.”
Another issue citizens have mentioned to Cleveland is about the speed of development in Cobourg.
Cleveland said it’s been 2.5 years since he was elected Mayor, “and I haven’t actually greenlit a single development project which really shocks a lot of residents.”
All the construction that has taken place is a result of the two previous councils.
“A lot of people are criticizing, “why are we building million dollar homes when people are looking for 600 or 700 square feet condos?”
“The reason that is happening is these projects were approved in a market condition eight or nine years ago when those houses weren’t a million dollars. But because it’s taken seven, eight or nine years to move some of these projects to the finish line – when they finally get there, the market conditions have changed.”
Cleveland sums up the problem by saying, the town can’t start building more homes until the projects are finished.
Cleveland addressed the re-routing of Midtown Covert Creek Culvert which is approximately 80years old, that runs through downtown Cobourg.
The culvert runs from Covert Street, under the parking lot and downtown buildings on King Street, the lot behind those buildings between Second and First Streets and past Albert Street into Rotary Harbourfront Park.
The project would benefit the developer by fully removing the culvert from the land for its housing project.
At Cobourg Council in July, it was decided the developer would pay $350,000 and the taxpayers would fork over up to $2 million.
Today’s Northumberland wondered if it needed to be done, why is the developer paying anything, or, if it is being done for the developer, why are taxpayers on the hook for most of the projects price?
“This is why development is really important to communities. This is why when you look at 117 Durham or the Legion and different development projects, a lot of what we’re looking at are infrastructure costs.
Infrastructure costing is a complex, mathematical, engineering question. It’s about finding a deal. It’s a negotiation between the developers, the province and the municipality to find ways to fund development that needs help.”
“As a municipality we can’t afford this type of work all on our own. Similarly the developer can’t make projects work if they’re funding it all on their own.”
At this stage, Cleveland said he doesn’t support the proposed development at 202 Second Street.
“In it’s current proposed state, I do not support the development. I do support development on that piece of property. It’s not ours to chose whether it can or can’t get developed.”
Numerous residents are concerned with the height of the proposed development along with the design of the structure.
Cleveland reiterated, “in its current development, in its form I do not support the Second Street development.”
Through consultation with the town’s planning and development team, along with the developers, he’s hoping to come to an agreement.
When asked repeatedly, Cleveland did say that the height and heritage are “definitely” part of those concerns.
Cleveland will not be declaring a conflict of interest in the negotiations because the store he owns near McGill Street on King Street East is outside the area and also lives on King Street West.
“In this case while I do live on King Street, I am far enough away from the development to be able to have an opinion.”
Regarding nearly 100 people getting $160 tickets for parking along the harbour area between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 p.m. Cleveland said parking is a complicated issue.
“These issues need to be addressed – there is no denying them. But at the end of the day parking isn’t a easy thing to fix. Signage is definitely something we’ve heard lots about and as we get e-mails from community members and people who are a little bit dissatisfied with the service they’ve received in Cobourg, we make sure those kind of concerns are addressed.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
