Hi everyone,
I am posting an update received from Councillor Amanda Collucci. Her answers are given below in bold italics
Questions:
1. What is the target number City needs to reach in order to build an Off-Leash Dog Park?
- In the City 2019 ILMP (Integrated Leisure Master Plan), it already identified the needs and the goal of achieving 1 Off-leash Dog Park per ward
2. How do we encourage pet owners to register their pets across the City?
- Councillor Collucci to include the message in her newsletter and e-newsletter as well as advising City staff to place more advertisements Citywide. Since our In-House Animal Services is still very new to the municipality (as of April 1, 2021), our staff are in the process of of developing an action plan to increase awareness of licensing and educate the public on the necessity of licensing. But so far since the implementation of our In-House staff model started, we have issued a total of approximately 600 new animal licences in the past few months. Staff will also be adding signage to the leash free areas and enforce licensing in the near future.
3. In the requirements/guidelines, it indicates the minimum buffer of 120m (400ft) from residential and commercial property lines but the Cornell dog park doesn’t meet this requirement and it’s less than 120m.
- This is the result of putting an off-leash area in without a policy or standard guidelines. The guidelines are not finalized but reflect many best practices across the province and will likely be adopted in some form as proposed. We already find that the proximity to residential at Cornell has complications that a larger buffer could alleviate.
4. What is the population and how many households are in Ward 6?
- information can be found here for Markham Ward 6 Demographics (Data gathered from Statistics Canada 2016 Census)
5. Can residents provide input and suggestions before building the park? (ex) Material / location selection?
- Yes, that is the plan, we are proposing Public Open Houses once the staff resources are provided to undertake the project and the work reaches the stage of consulting with the public.
6. How does the Animal License Fees calculated?
- In 2018, staff reviewed all service fees within the municipality, animal licences included. Neighbouring municipalities were used for comparison and our fees are in line with most. The major difference is that we have a standard fee, $30 for dogs, $20 for cats—some municipalities offer discounts for fixed and microchipped pets but the amount of an unaltered and non microchipped animals are far higher, approximately $55 for dogs $35 for cats. It is important to note that without the appropriate resources and online animal licensing it is difficult to prove the validity of the microchip and alteration status. It is also important to take into consideration the number of animal related programs the City offers, wildlife rehabilitation, Cat Adoption and Education Centre, a free ride home, free wildlife audits—the standardization of fees are used to off set the cost of these very important programs, not to mention animal patrols and sheltering.
7. Resident doesn’t see any water services at the Cornell Dog Park but it’s one of the requirement
The water service is currently being installed as part of the Maintenance building work currently being constructed.
Suggestions:
1. In the requirements/guidelines, it requires adequate parking for a minimum of 12 vehicles for a dog park. Residents suggest to utilize parking spots at local school as an option. At Cornell, pet owners are parking on the side of street.
- Again, Cornell was constructed in the absence of a policy and standard. Communities with on-street parking were not designed to have that parking taken up by Off-leash Dog Area users and this is why our eventual standard will require unique parking be installed for the off-leash dog area. We do not have any comment regarding residents utilizing school parking and cannot make that an official recommendation as a solution.
2. Location suggestion: Berczy Park North / South, Angus Glen, Wismer Park
- Thank you, once we have the resources available to initiate this study, we will certainly include them in the list of opportunity sites.
3. Need to include safety measures as there are litters at parks which might be harmful to pets
- This is a regular maintenance item
4. Adding few smaller dog parks are more practical than building one large dog park in the neighbourhood
- This is not the approach that our current ILMP calls for and would have major financial implications, you cannot construct 2 small sites for the price of one as there are fixed expenses for each. Also, the current size that is being constructed and proposed as our standard moving forward is approaching the minimum size for it to be a positive user experience for owners and the pets.
5. Adding a barrier or division to separate the size of the dogs as larger dogs could get more aggressive.
- Agreed! Our current construction includes a small dog and large dog area and our proposed standard will maintain this detail.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to let me know.
Have a wonderful day.
Nilesh Bhatt
416-526-6100