The city wants to set up one dog park in each quadrant of St. Albert, but that could increase if the proposed changes to the animal bylaw go ahead.
Unveiled Tuesday night at an open house, the plan proposes a second dog park just north of Servus Credit Union Place in Campbell, as well as four possible new locations for future dog-friendly facilities.
Monique St. Louis, director of recreation services, said the plan is to build one dog park in each of the north, south, east and west quadrants of the city. Campbell would be the second park, after the Lacombe dog-friendly park at Lacombe Lake Park.
A proposed second park on Levasseur Road was shot down by council this year over resident noise concerns and the preferred use of a chain link fence. The vote by council came after the city waited for the better part of a year for AltaLink to raise nearby power lines.
“Campbell is the next selected site, barring feedback,” St. Louis said.
Of the four new sites presented, staff will choose two based on resident feedback, which is open until Dec. 6. All four are located on municipal reserve sites – two are in Riel Business Park, one is in Erin Ridge and the fourth is on Boudreau Road, beside the Badminton Club. The sizes range from 0.88 to 1.85 hectares.
“We looked for nice topography that makes it interesting for dogs and owners,” St. Louis said. “We looked for appropriate or adequate size so there was adequate space for them to exercise freely.”
Other criteria include some form of parking, as well as ensuring dogs aren’t at risk from nearby traffic. Of the four sites, the one in Riel and the Boudreau site only have trail access. The other two have street parking.
“We really don’t want to have to sink public dollars into parking lots if we don’t have to,” St. Louis said.
The proposed Campbell park would be able to use Servus Place’s parking lot, but the topography is relatively flat and the site is located within the city’s one-in-100-year flood plain, which could make it inaccessible after heavy storms.
“That limits a bit of infrastructure but there’s not a lot of infrastructure, so that’s not a huge issue for us,” St. Louis said.
What could impact the number of dog-friendly parks is the pending draft animal bylaw. Now under review by city manager Patrick Draper, the originally proposed bylaw would have required dogs to be on a leash at all times except at dog parks. Currently dogs only need to be on a leash in specified locations.
“We want to get four. Depending on what happens with the animal bylaw, we’ll see if we go deeper.”
The Campbell park would cost roughly $75,000, all taken from the dog reserve, funded by the purchase of annual dog licences.
While the Campbell park met with support from dog owners who attended the open house, there were frequent criticisms of the newly proposed sites, with parking being the most frequently cited problem.
“The main problem I see is that two of them don’t have any parking,” said Brenda Cleland, who owns two dogs. “You can access them through trails but you have to park somewhere else unless you live near it.”
Warren Duggan agreed in principle with the idea of creating a dog park in every quadrant, but said the city should go back out and examine new sites.
“There are other areas I want to look at around the city,” Duggan said. “I don’t know what’s available for city land because these are just four different ones they brought up here. I’d like to look around a bit more.”
Council will vote on the proposed Campbell park on Jan. 28, at which time it will also present two of the four potential sites.
