New Off-Leash Dog Park coming

From Councillor McHattie:

As the dog owners in the community know, the Hill Street Leash Free Park is very well used – so well used that the grounds are suffering.  In order to alleviate the pressures on the Hill Street location, we are creating a second Ward 1 Leash Free area in Cathedral Park (behind the Dundurn Fortinos).

The new park will have two fenced zones so that users can be moved from one zone to another in order to allow the sod in each zone to rejuvenate and thus prevent the destruction of the grassed areas that we’ve experienced at Hill Street.  I expect it will be a great place for dogs and well-used.

Once the Cathedral Park location is open, the Hill Street location will be closed temporarily for a period of time (still to be determined , but likely two months or so ) to allow the grass to rejuvenate.

The new Cathedral park location will be open soon – we’ll let you know once all the details have been worked out.

I have seen a number of you with our dogs at the Hill St Leash Free Park and you’ve been concerned that it will close permanently. I can state here, without reservation, that the Hill Street location will remain open into the future, ideally with the new Cathedral Park location drawing usage from other parts of Ward 1 and the City, resulting in Hill St being more gently used by the local neighbourhood.

In addition, a new light will be installed in the park allowing for better usage in the fall/winter when it gets dark earlier.