Kiwanis Park is visited year-round by residents seeking lovely walking trails as well as the leash-free dog park, the only dog park in the area with a dedicated area for small dogs. In the winter, visitors are happy to walk the unmaintained trails to get to the leash-free park. 

However, available parking during the winter is much too small. We see a full parking lot during many times of the day. During the winter people park in the paved turnaround on Kiwanis Park Drive, which is signed "no parking" along with the rest of Kiwanis Park Drive. 

There is a second parking lot 30 meters from the available parking, behind the locked park gate.

The city's response on November 9th to a question about winter parking was that "The roadway is not maintained in the winter, so for the safety of our park users vehicular access in the park is restricted in the winter. The gates will be reopened in the summer of 2022."

We ask that the City of Kitchener open the second parking lot for winter access, so that visitors may access the leash-free park and otherwise enjoy the large natural areas, without any expectation of further vehicular access beyond the parking lots. This will require figuring out access to that parking lot, which should be separate from vehicular access to the roadway into the rest of the park.