A real estate listing that appeared online on Friday has caught many people by surprise including the municipality.

A large section of the Sir Sandford Fleming Park, also known as the Dingle, has been put up for sale by a private owner.

“Most people thought it belonged to the city and the Dingle is part of the city parks,” said resident Danny Weir. “But it’s because the city maintains the walkways in the past around here for many years, so people are under the assumption it belonged to them but now it’s for sale.”

Councilor Shawn Cleary says he found out about the land belonging to a private owner last year when the city’s real estate staff were in talks with the owner about purchasing the lot.

“I guess those talks hadn’t been going as well as I would hope they’d gone since it’s up for sale,” said Cleary. “Now that it’s up for sale, puts in jeopardy that trail and obviously access to those parts of the park, and for, I think, park users and people that live nearby, that was quite a shock, and when I found out about it, it was quite a shock.”

The popular walking spot actually sits on three different pieces of property.

According to the property listing, the undeveloped land was assessed at just over $237,000, but the current owners are asking for just under a million.

Residents in the area think it would be a good purchase by the city.

“It would be a beautiful lot for someone’s home so we know that’s going to have an inflating aspect of the price of the property,” said Cleary. “So we’re just going to have to do whatever we can to buy it for whatever it’s worth.”

“Parklands are important to the city. It’s a great opportunity for people to get around and enjoy the city. So it thinks it’s in their best interest,” said Weir.

“Of course, everybody has the right to build on their own property. I heard some suggestion that we might cut off the end of the hill so that the trail would go around and that would be, you know, that would probably cost a lot more than just buying the land,” said resident Theresa Thomas.

Councilor Cleary is hoping to have the land dispute resolved in the coming weeks.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Eilish Bonang