You have until March 19 to give your opinion, suggestions, and/or comments about the proposed dog park.

Roughly 60 people in total attended the engagement on Monday evening (March 6) which included blown up detailed plans of the preliminary design. While some people wondered why there was no presentation, it did provide community members the opportunity to circulate and consult with others.

Funding for phase one only, has been approved at $330,000, which includes construction of the park, parking lot, and a considerable agility area. It was a split crowd as far as yay's or nay's, with chatter mostly about location, parking, bylaw enforcement, and residential traffic.

In regards to location, many wondered why there?! Why it couldn't be moved to the south toward the skate park/ soccer fields so it wouldn't back on to residential homes. Suzanne Gaida, Town of Cochrane, Senior Manager Community Services, says they were mindful when choosing the initial location to not pick a place that already had active use.

"If you move down south to where the Dairy Queen and such, there is a pathway there that is used for people to access Mitford Park, from Glenbow, from the crossing, and access the skate board park. What we didn't want to do was create another scenario where we do see conflict down by the river. We wanted to create something that was specifically, not taking away another use, granted it does back it on to people's homes, but that space isn't being used for any other purpose." 

The new park is also a substantial size and finding land comparable isn't easy, adds Gaida.

"The spot we are talking about is 8 acres approximately, which is a nice size. What we didn't want to do was create a pocket park kind of idea, we wanted to create a big spot similar to the size on the river, so you can actually get a good walk with your dog and not be over populated."

While the Town is getting close to going to tender there is still time to tweak the plans so it is important to speak up.

"Even on Monday night we heard some things. Our consultants Ground Cubed were there, and they heard some things that said yeah that makes sense let's see if we can add that in there; so we will be working with them through this process until the end of March and then hopefully the tender will go out end of March beginning of April so we can get the work done this summer."

The need for the dog park was identified back in 2012 as part of the Open Spaces Master Plan with a plan of action to occur in 2017. The town did meet with adjacent property owners back in January and made revisions to reflect their suggestions, concerns, and feedback, which was presented to the public at the open house. While plans for phase two were included nothing will be finalized without further public consultation and funding approval.

To see all the detailed plans and have your say go here.