Liberty Village condo dwellers love their dogs. You see them in the hallways , the courtyards, lobbies, elevators and every spare patch of grass dotted around the area.

There has been a great deal of heated debate about dog owners’ desire to have a local off-leash dog park in close proximity to the condos and townhomes along East Liberty St, Western Battery St and Lynn Williams St.

As it stands, the two closest off-leash dog parks are at Stanley Park (about a 5 mins walk) and Joe Shuster Way, just north of the townhomes (about a 10 min walk). Neither are very far away but clearly too far for some of our local dog owners.  We know this because it is very common to see dogs off-leash at both the Liberty Park and the parkette by the townhomes.

Liberty Park seems to be causing a greater stir due to the mix of an increase of small children playing on the playground and dog owners who are ignoring by-laws and allowing their dogs to frolick unleashed in the grassy part of the park. I recently saw what came very close to being a punch-up when the father of a young toddler took exception to the owner of a leash-less dog who had knocked his son over.

Sadly these type of confrontations are happening more and more.  Clearly there is demand for a dog park. The question is whether there is really a need for a dog park when there are two not that far away and green space is at a premium?

Some possible off-leash options have been thrown around casually including a linear dog park along the north side of Lynn Williams St.  There’s a park beside Lamport Stadium that hardly gets any use right now.  However, walking to Lamport Stadium is pretty much the same distance as walking to Stanley Park, currently the nearest dog park, and only a little closer than Joe Shuster.

A recent Liberty Village Residents’ Association Facebook Page posting about this subject caused a great deal of debate and fostered two opposing online petitions back in June. Worthy of a read to see how charged people get about this topic.

Michael Camber

Michael Camber is the #1 selling real estate salesperson in King West and Liberty Village. Since 2003 he has been helping his clients achieve all of their real estate objectives.

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