Meeting on Siting Dog Park, August 11

Dear Neighbors:
We are working towards finding the right spot for our dog park. We have received overwhelming support from the neighborhood (as well as the city) for this project. We are still hashing out the details and making a final decision on location. This location will be determined by what makes the most sense in terms of traffic and parking, drainage, availability of water and electricity, maintenance, best use of resources, overall cost, shade, planning for future phases of the park including tennis courts and bathhouse renovations, etc.

The city determined that the initial area we thought may be a good option will likely have drainage issues. The city then proposed two different locations near Bike Co-op’s new home. One next to the caretaker’s house or one in the lower parking lot. After touring the area and weighing the pros and cons, the board prefers the area next to the caretaker’s house for many reasons. The proposed piece of land is about 150’ from the street, set back behind the trees (three or four buildings wide to put it in perspective). The dog park would also have a 6’ high privacy fence re- ducing visibility even further.

If you have questions, we would like to invite you to our board meeting at 7pm on August 11 at Dan Read’s house, 1424 Acadia St. Before the meeting, please take a few minutes to walk through the caretaker’s property and the lower parking lot. If you want to see how a small dog park functions within a neighborhood, you could also take a walk by Cleveland-Holloway’s park off Roxboro. I do property management for a house very close to the park on Elliott St., and from what I know, the dog park doesn’t present issues there (noise or otherwise). Two Durham City representatives who we’ve been working with will be at the meeting to answer questions- Beth Timson and Ro- setta Radke. Please feel free to join the discussion.

- Cameo Edwards