The city of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Board voted Thursday to approve a permanent downtown dog park on Culver Street between Third and Fifth avenues on the west side of Margaret T. Hance Park.
Tom Byrne, landscape architect for the Parks and Recreation Department, presented the recommendation to the board and suggested a permanent park rather than a temporary one based on cost.
A temporary dog park at the Culver Street location would be $219,260 with an additional cost of $181,944 per year for rented chain link fencing, Byrne said, citing a cost analysis.
He also said a permanent dog park at the same location would cost around $280,000. The current plans for a permanent park would include a 6-foot-high wrought-iron fence, drinking fountains and trees.
Based on the cost differential, Byrne recommended on behalf of the Parks and Recreation Department that a permanent park be built instead of a temporary one.
Three residents of Culver Street also spoke before the Parks and Recreation Board voted.
Resident Lindsay Taylor said she was pleased that the permanent park was recommended rather than the temporary one.
Some of the park’s neighbors have been fighting the possibility of a dog park near their homes since it was proposed.
“It needs to be done correctly,” Taylor told the Board.
Taylor said she supports the wrought-iron fence included in the plans because it will be aesthetically pleasing, though she said she is concerned about sound barriers since the park will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Taylor said, at this point in the process, her main goal is to have the neighbors included in the design.
Debbi Schilling has lived on Culver Street for 20 years and her property is only 26 feet from the proposed dog park’s fence.
At the meeting, Schilling requested that the dog park not be placed across the street from her home, but somewhere else in Hance Park.
In addition to approving a permanent dog park rather than a temporary one, the Parks and Recreation Board noted that the neighbors should be involved in the park’s planning from this point forward.
“Our strategy going into the meeting was to make sure we’re involved,” Taylor said.
Contact the reporter at abree.abril@asu.edu
