The City of North Vancouver is sniffing around for the possibility of an off-leash dog park in Lower Lonsdale.
LoLo resident Erin Fuller pitched the idea to council on Monday night, with an aim to getting canines in the fast-growing neighbourhood a place to run, play and get nose-deep in another dog’s hindquarters without having to be driven to one of the North Shore’s designated off-leash areas.
“The reality of Lower Lonsdale is most of us live in condos and apartments where owning a dog means you can’t just open the back door and let them run around the yard,” she said. “I want a safe place to take my dog, preferably a fenced area where I don’t have to worry about traffic or her running after kids or getting into something that she shouldn’t.”
Fuller also collected more than 1,300 names (or paw prints) for a petition asking the city to address the lack of infrastructure for four-leggeds in what is otherwise the North Shore’s most walkable neighbourhood.
Fuller’s top suggestions: the north side of Waterfront Park between the train tracks and West Esplanade, or the undeveloped city-owned lot on East First Street, which has become the “de facto” dog park for the area, she said.
Kings Mill Walk, Mosquito Creek and Lynnmouth are popular off-leash areas, but they are out of reach for people will want to live car-free, Fuller noted.
Dog parks aren’t only a place for dogs to socialize and exercise, Fulller said, but they also tend to be community hubs where friendships between dog owners are born.
Though council seemed sympathetic to Fuller’s cause, there was not much optimism among council members or city staff that an off-leash area could be carved out of any existing green spaces.
The city-owned lot on East First is likely going to be redeveloped, possibly as a new home for North Shore Neighbourhood House, sooner rather than later, according to staff.
Coun. Pam Bookham said any solution will have to be an innovative one, because there is no easy way to create a new park for canines with such a limited land base.
“I think it’s going to be a real challenge, quite frankly, to find an area in Lower Lonsdale able to accommodate dogs off leash,” she said. “If you’re looking for an area where you actually want to exercise a dog, particularly a larger dog, I just don’t see how we’re going to accommodate that use.”
Kings Mill Walk, which is about two kilometres west of Lonsdale Quay and allows dogs to go leashless, will be more accessible for Lower Lonsdale residents once the Spirit Trail connection through Squamish Nation land is completed in 2016, Mayor Darrell Mussatto said.
The District of North Vancouver has two fenced off-leash parks for dogs and more than a dozen trails where leashes are optional, according to staff. The City of Vancouver’s downtown core has six off-leash areas, most of them fenced.
