The cancellation of the proposed dog park left me feeling dismayed to say the very least. I feel like I want to ask town council not only, “How could you?” But, also, “Why would you?”
The small group of NIMBYers didn’t have a single argument that seemed the slightest bit reasonable. Too much noise? They live beside a major highway and the CP rail mainline.
Too much traffic? Same problem everyone deals with in Cochrane for one thing but also, it’s not a reason to cancel the park but rather just the parking lot – I would be happy to park elsewhere and walk over.
It will drive your dogs crazy? No different than what the rest of us deal with all the time. If my dog barks at dogs walking by my house (which she does) I don’t get to ask my community to not walk past my house anymore.
Eyesore? Is that as opposed to the dead space there now? Or would it be obstructing your view of the traffic on Highway 22?
It could affect property values? This is purely speculation. Whether or not the property value goes up or down kind of depends on whether the buyer has a dog or not. And regardless, I would bet that they would rather have a dog park than a highway and a train.
Don’t even get me started on “Kids will do drugs there.” That has to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in years.
You didn’t know? Not a reason to make the community at large pay the price. It’s every homeowners responsibility to keep informed of what’s planned in their neighbourhood. It’s also delusional to buy a house next to empty public land and expect it to stay that way forever.
Too expensive? Well the money comes from developers, not from the town. The developers get their money from new homebuyers. So as a new homebuyer myself I’d like to ask again just who exactly do you think is paying for this? Also, have you ever bought a new home? Do you have any idea how expensive fences and landscaping are – $330,000 to do eight acres including trees, an agility course and a parking lot is a deal.
I think I would be less upset if there was some kind of indication that council was seeking feedback from all sides. Instead, there was a secret meeting with people from one side, then there was a surprise vote to cancel the park a week before the consultation was even up.
From what I had read, the park was already pretty much a done deal with just some minor tweaking left to be done. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, it’s cancelled. For goodness sake, if I had known that this was even still up for debate, I would have been happy to show up and say all of this in person.
Instead, council just cancelled the dog park out of the blue and left the people of Cochrane hanging high and dry.
Along with the 4,356 licensed dogs in town.
Shane Carson
