Shoreline off-leash park pilot sites selected

Wednesday night, October 29th, the City of Shoreline held a public presentation announcing the two off-leash pilot sites selected by the Off-Leash Dog Area (OLDA) study group and approved by the Park Board on Oct. 23rd.

OLDA made their presentation including history of the project, the process and criteria they used, and their final recommendations (see below). The public then asked questions and made comments. Comment forms and a copy of the presentation will be posted on the City's site soon.

The two pilot sites are:

1. Richmond Beach Saltwater Park (South End) - originally the north end by the dunes was also proposed but only the south end has been selected for a pilot site. It is proposed that this site will be timed use. The timeframe that this site will be open for off-leash use has not yet been determined but it is likely to exclude the summer months.















2. Shoreview Park - this site was not one of the original "six most promising sites" selected because the SCC Greenwood lot was proposed. There have been ownership issues that prevent us from pursuing the Greenwood lot, so OLDA took a closer look at the Shoreview site (formerly used as parking for SCC and referred to as "the pit"). It is accessible from the Shoreview Parking lot by the tennis courts and also from the SCC parking lot. This will be more of a traditional style dog park.

Next Steps: The pilot sites will be presented to the City Council at their next meeting (Dec or Jan - date has not yet been determined) and environmental studies are currently in the works. City Councilmembers Janet Way and Doris McConnell were in attendance at the public presentation. If all goes well, Shoreview may open in Spring of 2009 and Richmond Beach in Winter of 2009.

Shoredog members were also present at the meeting and encouraged people to join their mailing list and become involved in their organization which will be the stewards of these sites. Shoredog will be hosting a field trip to the two sites on Sat. 11/22 at 11am, meeting in front of the Central Market Food Court.

Link to Shoredog site here.
Link to Ronald Bog Blog's other posts about the off-leash park project here.