“We would like for it to be a bigger and better dog park, like we’ve been promised,” said Butch Richardson, president of the Friends of Deeds Point Dog Park, a nonprofit that helps manage the park. “I do have to say the city has been trying to work with us to make that we’re going to get it.”
The city will construct a dog park to help relocate Deeds Point Dog Park, said Todd Kinskey, Dayton’s director of planning, neighborhoods and development.
The city expects to share plans for the park with stakeholders and neighbors later this summer, possibly in a few weeks.
The dog park will be relocated as the nonprofit arm of the Connor Group works toward redeveloping 10 acres of nearby vacant land into a $35 million school campus.
The Greater Dayton School plans, which were recommended for approval by the Dayton Plan Board, include a school building, track, turf field, playground and other facilities.
The developer also proposes creating a 2.5-acre public park with educational and interactive water features and other amenities.
Richardson said the proposed dog park site would be near the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery on DeWeese Parkway.
He said the park could have more space and amenities, such as a separate area for small dogs and a paved path. The current dog park has one fenced-in open space.
Richardson said he thinks the city will have about $250,000 to invest in the new park, and if done right, it could be a regional attraction and asset.
He said he would like the park to have a water feature and obstacle course, but that likely will exceed the amount of money the city plans to invest.
Richardson said the dog park wants to find private and corporate donors to create a park of the highest quality that the community deserves.
He said he’d love to raise enough money for the new dog park to be like FurField Dog Park in Fairfield, which has multiple play areas, a pond for dogs to swim in and a shaded gathering space.
“We’d like to get some private funding to put in some of the features we’d like to have,” he said.
Richardson said the new location will be less convenient for the many dog owners in downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
He estimated that as many as one in three dog owners who use the park walk to it, and the new location isn’t in easy walking distance.
He said there is no direct route to drive to Triangle Park from downtown, especially if North Bend Boulevard is closed down, as proposed.
Deeds Point Dog Park is about 2.8 acres and has a wooded area that the new park will not have, he said.
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