Fort St. John dog park designed for inclusivity
An all-inclusive space for dachshunds, huskies, and Great Danes — that’s the idea behind plans for an eight-acre park for city pups to run around off their leashes at Toboggan Hill Park.
The City of Fort St. John unveiled a proposed design for the park at a public open house Tuesday, May 1, which includes three separately fenced areas for miniature, small, and large dogs.
“There’s a place for everyone to feel safe,” said Ray Avanthay, the city’s parks manager.
The city has budgeted $500,000 to build the park this year, and has turned its eye to Toboggan Hill as an area that’s underutilized and a good fit for redevelopment.
The city is looking to clean up the forest along 93 Street and north of the skate park, retaining tree buffers throughout as overgrown scrub brush is cleared out.
“We’re using the natural landscape of Toboggan Hill,” Avanthay said.
The plan calls for both paved and wood chipped walking trails, and fenced off from other public areas of the park, including the established disc golf course. The paved walking path would be maintained year-round.
Geotechnical work is already underway for a new parking lot, as well as a public washroom that would serve both the dog and skate parks. Whether it would be a year-round facility is budget dependent.
The park is already popular with skateboarders and disc golfers, and a dog park will “make Toboggan Hill more of a destination park,” Avanthay said.
Toboggan Hill dog park plan. City of Fort St. John
Developing the forest for public use will also address the illegal camps that often set up there. Bylaw enforcement boss Bonnie Isenberg says the city gets a handful of calls a year about about illegal camping or public safety issues in the park.
Most of the people who camp there are homeless, Isenberg said.
“Most people are compliant. They understand they can’t be there, but they have nowhere else to go,” she said.
Maintaining good relationships with local service agencies is key to dealing with those who are told to pack up their camp and leave, Isenberg said. Many have ties and are known to either the Salvation Army, Friendship Centre, or the Women’s Resource Society, she said.
“It’s important we build those community relationships,” Isenberg said. “If we don’t, they don’t get the help they need.”
Toboggan Hill is already home to a small, fenced off leash area, but the space is too impractical for dog owners and has been the subject of complaints.
From a bylaw perspective, Isenberg believes having a properly built park will attract dog owners who use other areas of the city, and improve enforcement complaints about dogs running at large and rampant dog waste that piles up along city trails.
“This park may result in higher compliance because people will have somewhere to go, and dogs will be safe,” she said.
The city is gathering public input about the design until May 8. Residents can complete an online survey by clicking here.
Input is key, Avanthay said, as the city finalizes the proposed design and prepares to present it to city council for approval later this month.
Avanthay believes the park will evolve organically over time after it’s built.
“There’s a lot of potential,” he said. “As we get more feedback through the year and years, we can look at what we can do there.”
The development of a permanent dog park is listed as a priority item in the city’s new parks and recreation master plan, which suggests building up to four new dog parks.
Fifty-one per cent of households in and near Fort St. John have dogs, according to the parks plan.
Email Managing Editor Matt Preprost at editor@ahnfsj.ca.
Published at Wed, 02 May 2018 19:30:00 +0000
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