If anyone is left holding the bag at Pritchard Park, Bainbridge city council members hope it will be dog owners who will find their way to a newly placed garbage can.

The Bainbridge Island City Council unanimously agreed Tuesday to turn Pritchard Park into a temporary testing ground where dogs can legally be off-leash to run free and romp in the water.

Council members’ 7-0 decision this week was a follow-up to months of dogged debate that wrapped up earlier this year when council members adopted stricter canine control laws but vowed to later examine the possibility of a temporary waiver from the new rules for Pritchard Park, a 50-acre piece of property on the southern shore of Eagle Harbor.

Council members said dog owners will have a few months to prove that the land can successfully be used as an off-leash area before complete ownership of the property is given to the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park & Recreation District. The city currently owns the eastern half of the park, and jointly owns the western end with the parks district.

The Pritchard Park notion has been in motion for a few months now. When the city ramped up its regulations on off-leash dogs in March, and declared dogs must be on leashes in the Winslow area and in the Lynwood Neighborhood Center, the move was unpopular with dog owners who clamored for wide open spaces — especially along the shore at Pritchard Park — to run and play with their dogs.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, council members agreed that Pritchard Park  will be open to off-leash dogs at all hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and up to noon Saturdays.

The test period is intended to show the parks district, which does not allow dogs to run free in parks except in designated areas, that dog owners can control their animals, clean up after their dogs and avoid conflicts with other park goers.

The city will put up signs announcing the off-leash area, and will also install “mutt mitt” stations with plastic bags for dog droppings and a new garbage can on the property.

The area will be open to off-leash dogs as soon as signs can be raised, but the test period will end two weeks before the land is turned over to the parks district later this year.

The idea was approved after some initial hesitation.

Some on the council said the city should be wary of putting in place a policy that would only be temporary. And as far as the park district goes, an off-leash area at Pritchard Park is a non-starter, and park officials have repeatedly told the city they will only accept the property with no strings attached.

Councilman Wayne Roth said the proposal would see the city sanctioning off-leash dog activity, with parks officials being left to deal with dog owners after the sanctions are removed after the property transfer.

“I’m inclined to leave things as they are,” Roth said.

Roth added, however, that he hoped the park district would seriously consider allowing off-leash dogs at the property.

Pritchard Park is already used by dog owners who let their dogs run free and play in the waters of Eagle Harbor. City Manager Doug Schulze said in his limited visits to the park that it was evident that dog owners weren’t cleaning up after their animals.

Still, he said the costs of making improvements to handle four-legged visitors would be small.

Mutt mitten stations, signs and a garbage receptacle would cost around $1,500, Schulze said, and labor to keep the doggy-doo bag dispensers filled and the garbage empty would cost around $3,000 to $4,000 annually.

“It’s a fairly minimal cost,” Schulze said.

At the start of the discussion, however, few council members seemed eager to unleash the beasts.

That led Councilman Val Tollefson, who had asked at an early meeting that the Pritchard Park idea be revisited, to note: “I don’t feel strongly about this. And I’m kind of sensing that nobody else does either.”

But Councilwoman Sarah Blossom said the council appeared to be doing an about-face, and noted there had been earlier support for the idea of an off-leash experiment at Pritchard Park.

At the least, she said, the move would give dog owners a few last months to enjoy the waterfront property with their pets before the property is transferred to the park district.

The rest of the council eventually agreed and unanimously endorsed the idea.

The improvements to the park are expected to be made before the end of the month.

The council is expected to get an update on the park transfer at its meeting on May 19.