In  a throwback to when there was just regular controversy unrelated to the pandemic, the City of Guelph has announced that construction will commence on the fenced-in leash-free dog area at the Bristol Street Park on June 29. The would be the second such amenity to built in Guelph, and it comes after the project was nearly ended in its entirety back in February.

A press release from the City of Guelph Tuesday confirmed that construction will begin in Bristol Street Park two weeks from Monday. Construction will include fencing, soft-close gate latches, security cameras, updated signage with the rules, tree planting along with the fence line, and a Sutera dog waste container.

The amenities at Bristol Street will be an updated version of what the City built at Peter Misersky Park last summer and based on public engagement gather last fall. People in the area of Peter Misersky Park who took part in one of two public engagement sessions complained about noise, excessive dog waste, increased traffic in the area, people using the park outside of posted times, and the need for better response times from bylaw.

Some of the changes to the park plan being implemented at Bristol Street Park are meant to address those complaints including the security cameras for bylaw, and the noise control measures. The City will be implementing these changes at Peter Misersky Park too once Bristol Street construction is complete, but there’s no exact timeline on when that construction will commence.

These improvements to the City’s plan to update leash-free dog facilities famously cam forward at the Committee of the Whole Meeting this past February when city council moved to eliminate the current fenced-in dark park options, and re-evaluate the plan. When the motion came up for ratification at city council at the end of February, Mayor Cam Guthrie ruled it out of order, and council passed the original recommendation by a vot of 10-3.

Building the Bristol Street leash-free park is one thing, but using it is another. The leash-free park at Peter Misersky is now closed to the public because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the City says that they will look at re-opening it with the advice of Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health once construction is complete at Bristol Street.