Background
In December 2019, Cobourg’s Town Council passed a resolution to declare a climate emergency and accelerate a transition towards carbon neutrality within Cobourg in response to the unprecedented global climate crisis. This resolution follows Council’s 2019 - 2022 Strategic Plan, which aims to position the Town as both an environmental steward and model sustainable community. It also aligns with prior sustainability work done in the 2010 and 2020 Climate Action Plan processes.
In response, an Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) will be prepared to help realize the aims of the climate emergency resolution and preceding plans. The Plan willContinue reading
Background
In December 2019, Cobourg’s Town Council passed a resolution to declare a climate emergency and accelerate a transition towards carbon neutrality within Cobourg in response to the unprecedented global climate crisis. This resolution follows Council’s 2019 - 2022 Strategic Plan, which aims to position the Town as both an environmental steward and model sustainable community. It also aligns with prior sustainability work done in the 2010 and 2020 Climate Action Plan processes.
In response, an Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) will be prepared to help realize the aims of the climate emergency resolution and preceding plans. The Plan will comprise specific and achievable actions that both the community and municipal government of Cobourg will take to build on existing environmental progress and advance new measures to respond to the climate emergency.
Alongside the strategic direction provided by the ICSP, the Town is also leading two concurrent projects to prepare Green Development Standards (GDS) and complete a Green Energy Retrofit (GER) Feasibility Study. The GDS will explore how the urban development process can support environmentally sustainable outcomes that can include, but are not limited to, energy efficiency and management, active transportation, stormwater management, water conservation, and solar readiness. Meanwhile, the GER will evaluate the potential opportunities, resources, and tools available to retrofit multi-family residential buildings with energy-efficient and renewable energy systems with the ultimate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from residential sources.
The ICSP / GDS / GER project will be informed by a number of different inputs, including the sustainability context of Cobourg, established standards and lessons learned from other communities in Ontario, municipal and regional priorities, and stakeholder feedback.
Planning Process
The combined ICSP / GDS / GER planning process launched in January 2022 and is anticipated to continue until early 2023. Phase one of the engagement, which ran from February to March 2022, sought to understand Cobourg's current state of sustainability. Phase two of engagement, which ran through May 2022, asked Cobourgians to contribute to creating a draft vision and goals for the ICSP. Phase 2.a of engagement ran in the summer of 2022, where residents were provided with an outline of the draft vision, goals and actions and asked to provide the level of support and feedback on each. The final phase of engagement, held in November to December 2022, sought feedback on a draft version of the ICSP.
The feedback gathered through these initial phases of engagement has led to the development of the first-ever Integrated Community Sustainability Plan for Cobourg. Documents produced during the planning process can be found in the Key Documents section of this page. We anticipate the ICSP will be brought forward to Cobourg Town Council in the first quarter of 2023.
The ICSP project team is appreciative of the time and effort taken by participating Cobourgians to support this important initiative for both the Town and community of Cobourg.
Public Engagement Objective
The public engagement objective for Phase three of the ICSP engagement process was to:
Share key components of the plan for community input and to understand if there is anything egregiously missing or incorrect
Understand the overall level of support from the Cobourg community for the forthcoming goals and actions
Gauge interest from the community about what actions they would like to participate in
Supporting Documents
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Feedback
The public engagement process for the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan has concluded as of December 2022. We anticipate the ICSP will be brought forward to Cobourg Town Council in the first quarter of 2023.
Town of Cobourg Resolution 484-19 (December 2, 2019), Motion to Declare a Climate Emergency and Accelerate GHG Reduction Actions in the Town of Cobourg (324 KB) (pdf)
