Dog parks and littering on agenda for Regina city councillors on Wednesday

Regina might get three more off-leash areas for its furry residents.

The city's executive committee will discuss off-leash dog parks on Wednesday morning during its meeting, with A.E. Wilson Park, Horizon Station Park and Litzenberger Park's rink on the agenda as potential spaces.

After reaching out to residents in the areas of the parks, city administration is now asking for approval from city councillors to go ahead with the development.

If approved, the designated space at A.E. Wilson Park in northwest Regina would include paved asphalt pathways and make it Regina's first accessible off-leash area, the executive committee's revised public agenda says.

It would become the fourth year-round municipal level dog park in Regina. The other three large off-leash parks are Cathy Lauritsen in the west, Ross Industrial in the east, and Mount Pleasant in the north.

The proposed off-leash dog park would be fully fenced and located west of the Jack Hamilton Arena

The initial idea to include a small dog-only area has been put on hold after consultation with the public in order to reduce the overall size of the off-leash park, according to the agenda.

Smaller off-leash areas at Litzenberger Park and Horizon Station Park

The boarded rink in Litzenberger Park might become another off-leash area, at least for part of the year.

Administration suggests turning the rink into a seasonal dog park, meaning it would only allow pet owners to let their dogs run freely there between May 1 and Sept. 30, from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays and 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends.

"The city has installed no-parking signs along the alley and enforcement will be undertaken as warranted," says the executive committee agenda.

"There are no costs associated with such a recommendation and it is currently being used for this purpose regularly."

A small off-leash area in the Towns neighbourhood would be part of the new Horizon Station Park, which is expected to be turned over to the city in the spring or summer of 2022, the document says.

According to the executive committee's agenda, around 30,000 dogs live in Regina.

"Providing additional off-leash areas provides recreation, exercise and socialization opportunities for these dogs and their owners," says the document.

"The development of fenced off-leash areas is also intended to reduce the number of dogs being illegally run off-leash in non designated areas."

Littering and new notice of violation tickets

Littering problems will also be on the agenda of Wednesday's executive committee meeting.

City administration recommends that Regina continues to offer the same level of waste collection services to all residents of the city, but amend the Waste Management Bylaw and introduce notice of violation ticketing as an additional enforcement technique to fight littering.

For example, by-law enforcement officers would then be equipped with tags to inform people whose carts are left out in the alley after collection day, according to the revised public agenda.

"This collaborative response allows the city to be proactive on matters that contribute to debris and litter in alleys," says the document.

"A notice of violation ticket would be issued as part of an escalated enforcement program that is focused first on achieving compliance through education, specifically, tagging of bins followed by a letter to the property owner and the client in billing."

The notice of violation schedule would result in increasing voluntary payment amounts, depending if it is the first, second or the third ticket issued to the property owner.

Ongoing non-compliance could result in stricter enforcement tools, such as violation tickets, a prosecution or eventually the cancellation of waste services.

Currently tagging of carts is only done on collection days.

"Outside of scheduled garbage collection days, which are weekly in the summer and bi-weekly in the winter, there is no proactive tagging of carts that are in violation of the Waste Management Bylaw which contribute to litter and debris in the alleys," says the public agenda.