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Housing plan irks S.W. dog park users

Some residents who use an off-leash park in Glenbrook are unhappy that a propsed housing project would make the park smaller.

The city hosted an open house on Monday night about a controversial plan to set aside part of a dog park for an affordable housing complex in the southwest community of Glenbrook.

Attainable Homes Calgary, a city-owned subsidiary that helps lower income Calgarians buy entry-level housing, wants to redesignate a piece of land at 32nd Avenue S.W., between 51st Street and Sarcee Trail, for a future condo project.

But some people who live in the area are opposed to the plan because it would shrink an adjacent off-leash greenspace.

Area resident Sam Stevenson says the land should be left for the dogs.

"It's enough space so that they can run. It's controlled by most of it being fenced and I enjoy it," he said.

The proposal is still in the early stages — no development permit has been applied for yet — and no decision about the parcel of parkland will be made for months, said Jessica Van de Mosselaer, a senior planner with the city.

An earlier application to amend the land use included a larger piece of land, enough for 250 housing units.

But the city's corporate planning group asked that the applicants scale back the project to 60 units, and ensure that an existing playground and aspen grove to the north of the project be preserved.

Opponents of the proposal created a page on Facebook called "Stop the development of Glenbrook dog park".