Advocates for the creation of off-leash dog parks in Cochrane continue to express their disappointment over the town’s proposed site and will be hosting a public open house at Cochrane Toyota tonight from 6 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.
Cochrane’s Off-Leash Advocacy Group (OLAG) will be on deck at next Monday’s council, imploring elected officials to tank their newest proposed off-leash park location and opt for the original site – north of Quigley and roughly double the size, around eight acres.
The new site is south of Quigley Drive along Highway 22 and will be roughly five acres in size.
“It fails on every level,” said Julie Sharpe, one of OLAG’s spokespeople.
The group will also be requesting two additional off leash sites – south and north of Highway 1A and sharing its vision on plans to continue its advocacy on behalf of the more than 4,300 licensed dogs and their owners to hold developers accountable to build dedicated off-leash spaces in every Cochrane community.
“Council needs to reach out to more than a few bully voices and tune into the needs of a greater community while remembering why promises have been made,” said Jim Uffelmann, a longtime park advocate and OLAG member, who said council committed a faux pas by not following their own process and scrapping the first site following backlash from some West Valley residents who would back onto the park before public consultation was finished.
Members of OLAG are seeking input to help inform their pending presentation – which will include their own research and community engagement.
Sharpe said that OLAG has conducted three online Facebook polls over the last several weeks. The first asked respondents to identify priorities for an off-leash area and generated 312 responses.
The results indicate that of those polled the areas of least concern for dog park users include installing benches, paved pathways, small dog areas and a dog agility area – all included in the town’s current park proposal.
Priorities, as identified by poll partakers, include access to water and garbage cans and secure fencing.
The second poll asked whether people would accept an off-leash park in their community, which resulted in 236 responses with 68 per cent declaring “yes”, 10 per cent “no opinion” and 22 per cent “no.”
A third poll that asked how much of an impact dog parks have on day-to-day life generated 92 responses, with nearly 71 per cent indicating that off-leash parks have a “significant impact” on daily life.
“If the consultation process was being considered at this ratio we would have dog parks in every community,” laughed Sharpe – Sunset Ridge resident and owner of Husky-lab cross Little Bear and blue heeler/Australian-shepherd cross Maya.
Sharpe said that while she uses the current off-leash multi-user space in Riverview, she avoids it during the evenings and on weekends due to increasing congestion.
Suzanne Gaida, senior manager of community services for the town, said administration would present the findings from their online public feedback on the proposed park site at the next council meeting.
“Administration will be presenting the new design to council for decision on Monday. Depending on the outcome of the meeting will determine next steps in the dog park development.”
The town’s online feedback was open until June 1.
