St. Albert city council has hit the brakes on a plan to fence a large portion of Lacombe Lake Park for off-leash dog use.
Coun. Sheena Hughes brought forward the motion at the Nov. 28 council meeting, saying she has heard a lot of vocal criticism of council’s decision to fence in the off-leash area.
“We’ve heard from a lot of residents they’re not thrilled about the solution that’s being proposed,” she said.
Council unanimously approved the motion, which puts on hold a plan council approved at the Sept. 26 meeting. The city will now spend the $15,000 to review design options, with a report expected to come back in the third quarter of 2017.
The initial plan, approved in September, would see the city spend $65,000 to fence off a large section of the park for off-leash use. The remainder of the park –including the walking trail and the lake – would be an on-leash area.
The justification for that move was to mitigate safety concerns. Some residents have argued having the whole park as an off-leash area makes it difficult for other users who don’t want off-leash dogs running up to them.
Coun. Tim Osborne said he was surprised by the amount of feedback he has heard from residents on this issue, when multi-million-dollar decisions like the major trunk sewer line known as Project 9 garner hardly a peep.
“Cut up a dog park and hold up, your inbox is full,” he said. “There were reasons for our decision, but in reassessing and looking at all the implications I think it’s important we do this right.”
Coun. Cam MacKay said he had heard from residents – dog-owners and non-dog-owners alike – who weren’t happy with the proposed fencing solution.
“It’s something people are certainly interested in seeing resolved,” he said.
Mayor Nolan Crouse, who was the only council member to oppose fencing in the park to begin with, said he was pleased to see the motion come forward. He noted he would have brought something forward himself, but didn’t want to come across as “playing sour grapes” that his idea of planting hedges instead of building fences had been rejected.
“This is a really significant issue,” he said. “I’m supportive of this.”
One of the concerns he had initially raised, along with his aesthetic concerns, was the fact the city had just spent $2 million to stabilize the banks of the lake in part to make a dog beach, which off-leash dogs would no longer have had access to.
Parks and recreation director Diane Enger had confirmed after the Sept. 26 decision the beach would be an on-leash area, but noted administration was unaware the lake was meant to include a dog beach.
Allowing dogs access to the lake was initially included in the city’s concept plans for the $2 million bank stabilization project, but is not currently listed as part of the project description on the city’s website.
