Cochrane town council has rescinded its motion to have a pilot shared-space off-leash area in the Sunset community.
The decision was brought forward at the regular council meeting on Feb. 22 by Coun. Jeff Toews after receiving a surplus of emails against the pilot project.
“The feedback we’ve been getting over the last few weeks has been very, very interesting to say the least. And I’d really like to thank the public for stepping forward and for giving us all that feedback on some of the different ideas,” Toews said.
“I’m going to be completely honest, it caught me off guard. I have never been blown away more by positives and negatives for this project – considering this was a pilot project, I did not expect this,” Toews continued.
Toews made the motion to run the shared-space off-leash pilot project in the Sunset community at the council meeting on Jan. 25. The pilot was set to run May 1-Sept. 1 from 9 p.m.-9 a.m. each day.
The slotted area to be used was just north of the storm pond, across from St. Timothy’s School. The area currently has a walking path and is used as an on-leash shared-space area.
“The reason behind the original notice of motion was we have 7,800 homes in Cochrane and 4,000 dogs – that’s basically every second home for the most part, give or take, has a dog. Being in and about the community, we’ve received a huge call from the residents to provide some more options,” Toews explained.
He continued that a shared-space off-leash area would provide dog owners a space to walk with their dog, rather than just standing in one area with their dogs and playing fetch. He also thought this area would help control the amount of pet waste being left in school yards and playgrounds.
Soon after the decision to run the pilot was announced, feedback from the residents of Sunset and in other parts of Cochrane began to flood in, some in favour of the project and others not.
The main concerns against the pilot going forward were: the hours of operation would make it unusable for dog owners, the off-leash dogs would not have their waste picked up after them, the dogs would disturb the area’s wildlife, and the area’s residents weren’t consulted about the project.
Suzanne Gaida, senior manager of community services for the town, explained the Sunset community won’t receive a dog park until Phase 3 of their Neighbourhood Plan is completed by the developer. This will likely happen in 10 to 15 years.
“I think one of the things we have to look at moving forward, and that I’ve learned from this entire process, is that we need to put more accountability on our developers to put this in place. We can’t have a whole community built and not have a proper area for off-leash,” Toews said.
“The second thing I’ve learned from this whole process is that changing something is difficult once it’s already in place. For example, placing a shared-space off-leash in an area where it wasn’t shared before. I think that if we ever to move forward with something like this in the future, I think that it’s something we have to write into the framework before the community is developed.”
Gaida pointed out two other potential areas that could be turned into a shared-space off-leash area within the Sunset community.
“There are two pieces of property that we have looked at. One is south of the storm pond where there is currently a fence and the old Fourth Avenue road connection on this land, so between Fourth Avenue and the road connection we don’t currently own that property but it is in transition of coming to us from the developer. Of course, if we were to do something permanent, it would be a dog park that would be fenced in. We’d have to put amenities there such as a pathway and maintain the grass area as it is quite rough right now.
“The other area that we own would be directly north of St. Timothy’s School where the parking lot ends up until the condos. It’s filled with coulees and is adjacent to the highway.
“Again, it’s a pretty rough area but we could look into potentially putting something in there,” Gaida explained.
Toews ended the discussion by making a motion to rescind the pilot project currently slated to start May 1.
It was carried unanimously.
He then made a final two-part motion with the first part directing administration to focus on the development of a dog park within the pipeline corridor.
Gaida explained during her presentation on Jan. 25 that administration has been working with Cochrane Pipeline Operators Committee (CPOC) to plan for a potential dog park along the pipeline corridor, just west of Highway 22 and north of Quigley Drive.
“We presented to CPOC a number of times to talk about the use of that area and if a dog park is a use of that area that they would be in favour of, knowing that the pipeline runs through there. They are in favour – we are in planning discussions about partnerships with them including funding and grant options,” Gaida said on Jan. 25.
Administration will continue to work on this project, getting cost estimates and determining CPOC’s contribution, and will present it as a capital project in the 2017 budget for council consideration.
The second part of Toews’ motion was for council and administration to continue to work with the Sunset community to find a solution for a future off-leash dog park that appeases everyone.
Mayor Ivan Brooker commented that he appreciated Toews brought this issue up at council due to the amount of feedback they had received and he agreed with Toews’ opinions on the matter.
Coun. Tara McFadden and Coun. Ross Watson were both impressed about the amount of engagement and communication there was on the issue.
Toews’ motion was carried unanimously.
