Off-leash plan ready for public review

The City of Calgary Parks is welcoming input from citizens on a draft Off-leash Area Management Plan until Dec. 8, 2010.

This administrative document aims to provide consistent, city-wide policies and procedures for the management of current and future off-leash areas. The draft management plan is based on public input gathered in 2008 and 2009 by Animal & Bylaw Services and Parks, current policies and the best practices of other municipalities.

The draft plan can be found online at: www.calgary.ca/offleash. A link to a feedback form is also on this web site.

In January 2011, a summary of the public input will be posted on the calgary.ca/offleash web site. Public input on the draft Off-leash Area Management Plan will be considered in the second draft, which will be presented to Council's Standing Policy Committee on Community & Protective Services in January 2011.

The City of Calgary operates 150 off-leash areas in our multi-use parks, far more than any other major North American city identified to date. The City of Calgary’s current off-leash area space, accounts for approximately 17 per cent of our entire parkland inventory. The total area of these 150 off-leash areas equals almost 1,600 CFL-sized football fields.

The City of Calgary Parks recognizes that off-leash dog walking is a popular form of recreation for citizens and is working to improve the quality of our off-leash areas. Parks is also working to propose new off-leash areas in new and underserved communities and exploring opportunities to fully fence some existing sites.