Visually impaired owner plans to fight off-leash fine
Leslieville resident Melanie Lepp let her dog roam outside fenced area, citing pea-gravel safety issues
Melanie Lepp, who is legally blind in one eye and totally blind in the other, won’t use the dog off-leash area at Greenwood Park.
The 10-year Leslieville resident stopped using the dog park near Dundas St. E. and Greenwood Ave. several months ago.
More than a year ago, she lost her footing on the uneven three-quarter-inch pea gravel surface and fell, breaking her cane in half.
Last spring, her German shepherd, Semper, cut his paws on the stones and wouldn’t walk or run on the gravel.
Since then, Lepp has been running her energetic dog off-leash just outside the fenced-in dog area. Unfortunately on Dec. 1, she was fined $261 for doing so, but will be defending her case in court next month.
“I’m taking (this fine) to court because I want it on the public record that I can’t use this park,” said Lepp, who has also reached out to the province about her accessibility concerns. “The surface is so unstable. It’s just not accessible.” Ward 30 Councillor Paula Fletcher is aware of the community’s concerns about the local dog park, which just over a year ago saw its dusty and smelly crushed granite surface replaced with pea gravel. Ongoing drainage issues were also addressed at that time.
In recent weeks, the Ward 30 representative has taken action on the matter and has been in talks with parks, forestry and recreation about exploring other surfaces for the once-popular dog park.
Just last week, Fletcher met with department members to request preliminary research be done into three potential replacement surfaces: cedar weave (a.k.a. engineered wood chips), K9 grass (turf ) and quarter-inch gravel. She’s asking the parks department to evaluate these three surfaces based on accessibility for dogs, accessibility for dog owners/walkers with mobility issues, odour and drainage, and yearround maintenance for a 10-year period.
Fletcher wants this information to be provided to her in advance of a meeting she’s planning to convene with a small stakeholder group later this month.
In a note sent to the parks department earlier this week, the TorontoDanforth councillor pointed to a Dec. 20 communication with director Richard Ubbens about “ongoing issues” at the local dog park, notably the fact “dogs are unable to run well on the surface” and that “it is proving to be unsafe for dog owners with mobility issues.” “The Greenwood DOL (dog offleash) was a much loved and well used off-leash and I know we would all like to see it restored,” she wrote.
During an interview, Fletcher said she realizes replacing the year-old surface will cost the city money, but it’s worth it if makes the local dog park more accessible.
“Pea gravel is not a lot of maintenance, but there’s a set of other issues. It wasn’t well thought out,” she said, praising the community for staying on this important issue.
“I’ve heard loud and clear from so many people that we have to revisit this and we are revisiting it.”
Local dog trainer/walker Katie Reid has long spoken out against the local dog park’s pea gravel surface.
Overall, she feels it’s a bad idea for the city to use this material for any of its dog off-leash areas.
Reid, along with fellow dog owner Stacey Grieve and members of the Greenwood Dog Park Association, helped organize several fundraisers collecting nearly $20,000 to replace Greenwood’s former crushed granite surface.
Like many, she pushed for a more natural choice like wood chips, but in the end the city went with pea gravel.
“What good is a dog park no one uses?” Reid said during an interview late last year. The pea gravel surface “addresses dust, odour and drainage problems, but the stones cut dogs’ feet and was a problem for those with limited mobility.”
Reid said she intends to “hold (the city’s) feet to the fire” to ensure they get it right moving forward.