Off-leash, aggressive and over-friendly dogs as well as dog waste are the biggest problems in Mundy Park.
And, this week, Coquitlam city staff laid out a $100,000 plan on how it can curb future dog conflicts in the municipality's biggest urban park.
Managers are recommending council budget up to $20,000 to launch a dog owner etiquette campaign and set aside another $60,000 to beef up bylaw enforcement. As well, staff are suggesting $20,000 be spent to create segregated loop trails for owners with off-leash dogs and trails for users without pooches.
The ideas come following a public consultation last fall as part of the city's draft Mundy Park Forest Management Plan the results of which were unveiled at the council-in-committee meeting on Monday.
According to the feedback, most people want to keep the 440 acres off Como Lake Avenue in a natural state. (Mundy Park, which was dedicated as an urban park in a 1993 bylaw, includes two lakes, three streams and 16 km of trails.)
The city, which spends about $80,000 a year to maintain Mundy, formed a focus group and hired a consultant last year to look at the park's future; mail-outs were also sent to neighbours and online responses were received as well.
In total, city staff spoke with more than 500 park users and took in some 200 comment forms. Of the 60 responses specific to dogs, 42 voiced concern about pooches being off-leash and aggressive as well as the lack of enforcement of dog regulations and dog waste.
In his report to the committee, Raul Allueva, Coquitlam's general manager of parks, recreation and culture, wrote: "It is clear that a large number of park users are not complying with dog off-leash regulations, which has pushed those not wanting to encounter dogs out of the park and caused concerns for other park users who are subjected to off-leash dogs outside of the approved hours."
Currently, dog owners are allowed to walk their pets without a leash in Mundy from dawn to 10 a.m. on the Perimeter Trail (except around Mundy Lake).
PARK ACTIVITIES
Meanwhile, a number of city projects are underway in Mundy Park this year to increase public use, including:
trying to set a world record for pulling the most amount of weeds in a weekend;
working with students and seniors to build and install 25 chickadee, four wood duck and two barn owl nest boxes;
and pruning the lower limbs of trees along trail edges to reduce wildfire risks.
If approved by city council, Mundy Park Forest Management Plan would cost up to $200,000 over five years to implement.
@jwarrenTC
