Penticton council asks for more feedback before green lighting leash-optional areas

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Penticton council still has a bone to pick before making a final call on proposed leash-optional dog areas.

A leash-optional pilot project operated March 1 to Aug. 31 at five locations that were based on existing usage patterns and accessibility — Okanagan Lake Park, Riverside Drive, Skaha East, Skaha Main and Penticton Avenue.

Staff reviewed observational and survey data in the fall following the conclusion of the pilot. They presented findings to council at Tuesday's meeting.

The survey was open to all Pentictonites, whether they owned dogs or not. More than 1,200 unique responses were collected.

Overall, 65 per cent supported the project. Staff also monitored various social media channels and received comments from emails, and overall the sentiment was "positive or neutral."

Staff noted that there were some negative moments, such as when a beloved recognizable Canada goose known as Kevin was killed over the summer, however staff further noted that that incident did not take place in a designated pilot leash-optional area.

Okanagan Lake Park was the most popular leash-optional area. However, staff decided not to recommend keeping that pilot area open permanently, citing stress on the turf since the area also hosts many festivals and events.

"The increase in dog activity and year round traffic would likely exacerbate the stress on this grassy area, particularly during the winter month, making it challenging to restore the turf to its previous previous health levels," Boyko said.

"Instead, staff proposed extending the existing fenced dog park, which currently spans 40 meters long along the lakefront, to a length of 75 meters ... the estimated cost for this extension is $7,000 which can be covered by the remaining capital budget for dog park improvements."

The Riverside Park area, on the other hand, has a green light from staff to continue to be leash-optional, with even more fencing, signage and increased monitoring, to ensure the public is aware of restrictions.

Skaha East, Skaha Main and the area on 1900 Penticton Avenue near the water treatment plant were also both supported by staff, also with more signage. The latter is the largest area of the five pilot areas.

In total, adopting the four sites would see 38,000 square metres of added leash-optional area added to Penticton.

Coun. Helena Konanz disagreed with keeping the four areas, instead wanting to keep just the Riverside Park and water treatment plant locations, and consider a fully fenced dog park in the future.

She and Coun. Campbell Watt both said they had been contacted by members of the public who shared they felt unsafe at the locations because they were wary of dogs.

Coun. Isaac Gilbert and Konanz also agreed they wanted to hear from the citizen-led parks committee and the accessibility committee for their thoughts on all the parks before making a final decision at a later date.

Mayor Julius Bloomfield added his own thoughts.

"Speaking personally on this, my comments would be that I'm actually surprised that we'd even be taking Okanagan Lake Park off of the list, because I think that from what I've seen, I mean, I drive by two or three times a day, and I've never seen the park so busy since we introduced the [pilot]," Bloomfield said, adding he was at first skeptical about unfenced off-leash areas but came around quickly when he saw them in action.

"I think it boils down to the different groups within society, the dog owners and non dog owners and how comfortable they are interacting. And a public park is just that, it's for all the public. So it's learning how to share those spaces ... it's a difficult balance but I mean I think that there is a balance in there somewhere."

He concluded by saying he was happy to have the committees have their say. The motion to send the matter to the committees for feedback passed unanimously, and council will hear from them at a later meeting.