City staff are working to address concerns of Rosemary Heights West homeowners who fear a proposed dog off-leash in Pioneer Park will increase traffic congestion and leave lawns piled with dog feces.
Surrey parks design manager Ted Uhrich said he is already in communication with a handful of residents who live near the South Surrey park, and he continues to meet with people.
“We’re still working with the neighborhood,” Uhrich said last week. We won’t be advancing any kind of plan until we’ve worked as hard as we can with the public.”
Establishing a project timeline will depend on negotiations with BC Hydro over establishing a noise-reducing berm, and also the Ministry of Transportation, because of the area’s proximity alongside Highway 99. The park is located under power lines, southeast of the recently installed freeway pedestrian overpass.
Neighbour Susan Pike told Peace Arch News that while she wasn’t able to attend the city’s Feb. 12 open house, she returned a feedback form. Citing an update letter sent by Urich, she’s concerned the plan is still going ahead, even though 19 people filled out forms registering opposition, against 16 people who indicated support.
Pike said city staff’s proposed solutions, which include removing the northern portion of the off-leash area near the overpass, don’t adequately address concerns of residents.
“We’re saying, wait a minute, the majority says no, but we’re still getting it?” she said. “This is going to be a dawn to dusk park. There’s going to be noise all day. I don’t know how they think that making it smaller is going to help. I just don’t get it.”
But Uhrich said that cutting out the northern portion has addressed many concerns he has heard, and a gravel parking lot onsite should take pressure off local streets.
Uhrich said the city is currently working on plans for some seven potential off-leash dog areas in rapidly growing areas like Rosemary Heights, in keeping with an off-leash strategy developed last year. And, he said, he feels they are generally finding favour with dog owners, who like features such as the separation of large and small dogs, and provision of areas for owners to socialize.
He added he feels, contrary to assertions by Pike, that residents received adequate notification of an open house held last September at Sunnyside Elementary presenting the city’s original plan for an off-leash area.
“We followed the usual protocol, including letters to residents and advertisements in the newspapers,” he said.
Concerns about noise and dog waste are a common thread among resident concerns about potential off-leash areas, Uhrich said, and the city will do everything it can to alleviate them before moving ahead with plans.
But Pike said the already-existing issue with dog feces in the Pioneer Park area should be readily apparent,
“All you have to do is walk down our street and you can see where they’re flinging all these little bags of dog waste into the trees and shrubs. There’s a creek running through here and they throw them in there, too.”
She said the city’s plan to address concerns by fully fencing and gating the off-leash area and providing of disposal bins at all entrances doesn’t account for human nature, let alone dog nature.
But Uhrich said the process of developing a city off-leash strategy has included research into what works in other municipalities with off-leash areas. It indicates that formalizing the space actually encourages compliance with disposal bins and other regulations.
“Our sense is that, by having a designated dog off-leash area people know what is expected,” he said.
“There is a sense that associations and organizations become involved and there is more responsibility with people working together.”
