Hey all,
Last Tuesday, the dogpark task force, which included DIG members Paul Randall, Suzanne Niemeyer, and Holly Miller, presented our report to the Park Board. If you don't know the background, the task force was created in late 2007 in the aftermath of the Board's sudden passage of a restrictive, dog-park hostile ordinance which attempted to stop a strong grassroots effort which had emerged to place a dog park in Sunnyside Park in Waldo. Not only did this ordinance (linked below) condemn any future dog parks to the dark corners of the KCMO park system, but it will be of interest to Penn Valley users that it provided several mechanisms, to be judged by the board on vague criteria, to close or alter the Penn Valley dog park. Thanks to great public outcry, the mayor appointed our task force to make recommendations to the Board on the proper implementation of future dog parks, and the ordinance was suspended.

Although the report provides, in my admittedly biased point of view, excellent tools to help the Park Board make additional dog parks in the city happen quickly, whether that happens will likely depend on a large amount of visible public, political, and eventually financial support for more dog parks. Our presentation didn't seem to generate much enthusiasm from the board, likely in part due to the difficult financial situation they are in at the moment. However, dog parks are a hugely successful means to increase park usage, are in obvious demand, and the city is woefully behind already in comparison to other similar sized cities, most of which have had multiple dog parks for many years now. Plus it seems clear that considerable private money can be raised for dog parks, if sites will only be approved by the Board. The task force was disappointed that the Board said that no final recommendations will be made without more public meetings, which is to a degree re-doing our work, as the task force had five public meetings over the last two years to discuss the matter.

The Board stated they will share their plans regarding dog parks in 30 days. If you want more dog parks, be ready and willing to show up at a public meeting to show your support, contact your council members, or write letters. Each recommended site will likely generate opposition from 'not in my backyard' types, so it is essential that folks that support dog parks in the locations identified speak up, or they won't have a chance. There is clearly at least one Park Board member adamantly opposed to dog parks, and there was no strong statement of support for the concept from any other Board members, so it may take continual, sustained public pressure to get decent sites recommended. At least some of the Board seems to have a somewhat backward view of dog parks, being greatly concerned about the amount of people these facilities will attract to parks, while seemingly missing that their main mandate at appointment was to get more people using city parks.

Here are the task force's primary recommended sites in bold along with other recommended sites, grouped by the geographic areas we used to distribute parks around the city. Note that each refers to a SITE in each park, they do not mean the whole park would become a dogpark. We placed sites carefully to not overwhelm any park, and to not interfere with other park programming.

North of the River- Frank Vaydik (formerly Line Creek) Park, Englewood Park, Hidden Valley Park, Hodge Park, Lakewood Greenway
Downtown to 31st St.- Case and Mulkey Square Parks (ideally developed concurrently)
Northeast- Maple Park
31st St. to I-435: Sunnyside Park, Daniel Morgan Boone Park, Gillham Park, Swope Park, Westwood Park
South of I-435: Minor Park

Attached is the report- it is worth a look just for Holly's excellent photos and pretty design. You can also get a copy on the Park's website (linked below).

See everybody at the park! http://www.kcmo.org/parks/parks/DogParkGuidelines.pdfhttp://www.kcmo.org/parks.nsf/web/DogParkTaskForce