Concept plans for an off-leash dog friendly space in Heritage Park have been abandoned.
In response to complaints, Sarnia council reconsidered its decision made in February and voted unanimously to end the project and direct staff to report back on alternatives.
Councillor Brian White had a change of heart after visiting the park.
"Obviously, I think dog parks are an incredibly important and valuable amenity and I'm looking forward to seeing other opportunities in the future," said White. "I went to this park a few times and I think I saw every inch of space being used for different reasons and it really did feel, upon a first hand inspection, that it was out of place in this particular area."
White said neighbours felt the same.
"I think every inch of grass is used at some point by families for other uses. I appreciate that (city) staff were looking for a spot to do a good thing. Obviously, as most of us on council know, it was not received very well at all and it's important that the neighbours had the opportunity to share their feelings on that and to give us an opportunity to consider the ramifications."
White asked staff if they'd consider other types of dog parks he's noticed being used outside of the city.
"I'm seeing slivers of land that really aren't useful for any other purpose, where they would install maybe three or four parking spaces and simply a fence and allow dogs to run freely off-leash. Essentially scrap land that the city owns that wouldn't be useful for any other purpose."
Plans to prepare site design concepts for an off-leash area at Tecumseh Park will proceed as approved.
