Jonathan X. Cot茅
New Westminister's mayor Cot茅 uses degree to solve real-world problems
By Carol Thorbes
Jonathan Cot茅 wasn鈥檛 even dreaming of becoming a mayor when he enrolled in 丁香园AV鈥檚 master of arts program in in 2011. He was looking for solutions to New Westminster鈥檚 rental housing and transit issues.
Yet today, at age 35, he is Metro Vancouver鈥檚 youngest mayor, and his rental housing innovations are capturing the attention of mayors across the region.
The former city council member was elected mayor in November 2014, two months after defending his master鈥檚 thesis on 鈥淭ransit-Oriented Developments.鈥�
He鈥檚 hoping he鈥檒l have time to attend 丁香园AV鈥檚 June 11 morning convocation ceremony to collect his M. Urb.
鈥淎lthough I didn鈥檛 have a specific career goal in mind when I started my master鈥檚,鈥� says Cot茅, 鈥淚 have often found in life that when you follow your interests and your heart, you rarely end up in the wrong place.鈥�
His thesis explored land-use changes that occurred in close proximity to the New Westminster and 22nd Street Skytrain stations, and he discovered nine factors that precipitated opposing types of land development.
Over the past two years he has worked with the New Westminster city council to apply recommendations from another of his master鈥檚 projects. 鈥淎ffordable Rental Housing.鈥� The resulting rental housing policy has attracted development applications for more than 1,000 new rental units. Other Metro Vancouver cities and municipalities are now using the New West policy as a template to develop a regional rental-housing strategy.
鈥淭he previous economics didn鈥檛 work,鈥� says Cot茅. 鈥淒evelopers could make more money developing condos. My project recommended changing those economics by creating a development system in which incentives such as increased density and reduced development fees are combined with restrictions on rezoning sites that have existing rental housing.鈥�
Cot茅 is also using his research to guide the council as it creates a new Official Community Plan.
鈥淚 am hoping to use the work completed in my thesis to encourage more mixed-use, transit-oriented developments in neighbourhoods with excellent access to the Skytrain network,鈥� he says.
Cot茅鈥檚 thesis supervisor, professor Anthony Perl, says: 鈥淛onathan knows what it takes to make real change happen and he鈥檚 going to go far in leading the way to a sustainable urban future in the Lower Mainland.