Expert encourages Ottawa to rethink approach to dog parks after west end park fiasco

After months of controversy surrounding a dog park in Ottawa's west end, a solution has been reached to divide the park in half.

Residents have been at odds with one another since September when the city removed the gates at Garfield Park, after it was announced as a fully fenced-in off-leash dog park last summer.

The idea turned out to be a mistake.

"Under a mixed-use designation you can't have a park be exclusive to one user or another and so the gates came off," said area councillor, Laine Johnson.

After public consultation in the form of a survey, the city is now dividing the park in half with a fenced-in space for dogs on one side and an open space on the other.

"There are people who don't want the park and don't like dogs, or they feel that they can't walk through the park," said dog owner, Karen Toupin.

In the survey, residents had two options to choose from. The first, leave the park as is without the gates and the second, split the park in half with dogs designated on one side. The majority chose the latter.

"I think it's creating another division in our community," said dog owner, Anastasia Machan. "I don't think we need that in our society right now."

"The park is so popular that I think that's going to be too small an area, so it's disappointing," said another dog owner, Alan Bradshaw.

While some say the city doesn't have enough fenced-in spaces for dogs as it is, others want to see the park used for other things.

"Very few resources have gone into doing anything with this park or having any aspirations for this park," said resident Larry Iveson.

"I think there are lots of questions that the city needs to answer. The process and the policies and the procedures that are going through are not completely transparent yet."

Many residents were disappointed there was no third option on the survey – to put the gates back up at Garfield Park and leave the entire space as a dog park.

"I think it's a bit silly. I know this is anecdotal evidence, but I've only seen one person ever use it as not a dog park," said dog owner, Kylie Meek.

In a statement, the City of Ottawa says: "Fenced parks that are designated as 'Dogs Allowed off Leash' are a leisure amenity built into a portion of existing parks. There are no examples of entire parks being fenced exclusively for the use of dogs. Parks with fenced areas for dogs are designated as 'mixed' and allow for dogs off leash within the fenced area, and dogs on-leash for the rest of the park to provide for access to the fenced space."

Marilynn R. Glasser, president of Dog Park Concepts and Consulting, has worked with several municipalities and says the city's approach is ill-advised.

"I am blown away that the city is taking a perspective that way. It would behoove them to do some research and assign a staff member to find out a little more about dog parks," she said.

"Many communities have developed dog parks on available properties that are not in existing parks. In other words, these may be considered 'stand-alone' dog parks, unattached versus being created within an existing park. I feel that a frequent problem with cities in relation to the development of dog parks is that many folks still consider these facilities novelties."

It's unclear when the new fencing will be in place, but Johnson says she's hoping to see it done before the winter.

"I've certainly been advocating for this to go faster; it's already been too slow. I've expressed my dissatisfaction and disappointment with that. In that same vein, I have said we have to get this up before snow comes," Johnson said.

"Ultimately, we cannot create an exclusive dog park here and the design de facto did that and policies don't allow for that. So, we're trying to do the best we can by giving everybody a little bit of what was important to them."

Johnson is hoping the solution brings some positivity back into the community, throwing around ideas on how everyone can come together once the project is finished.