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As Shimba and Mason, a pair of Siberian huskies, tussled in the gravel, Steven Rodrozen looked out across his local dog park.

“It’s not pretty,” Rodrozen said. “We call it the prison yard.”

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Unglamorous as it may be, the gravel park fills a need, said Rodrozen, who lives and works nearby, and brings his dog to the park frequently.

The property, at 1608 West Georgia St., was previously a public pay-parking lot, until the owners filled the site with gravel, two waste bins, two benches, and a sign identifying the space as a dog park, and then had it reclassified as a “recreation or non-profit” property. By reclassifying this property, which was assessed at just over $70 million for 2019, the conversion means the owners pay about $382,900 less this year on their property taxes.

Rodrozen said the park has been “fantastic” for him and other dog owners in the neighbourhood. For him, it provides more value than the public parking lot that preceded it on the site.