SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Public Schools’ (SPS) construction of a new dog park, down the street from Mullan Road Elementary and Peperzak Middle School, is sparking both concerns and praise amongst neighbors on the South Hill.
“Everybody seems to have known about this, except for the people who actually live right here,” Shelly Stoddard said.
On Friday, Shelly Stoddard stood in her driveway across the street from an open lot that will soon be a new dog park at the corner of 63rd and Regal on the South Hill, frustrated.SPS is building the new park and will donate it to the city; they hope the new park will continue to serve the neighborhood once a nearby dog park is replaced with new playing fields.
If you recall, there’s an unofficial dog park functioning right now behind Peperzak and Mullan Road, adjacent to the South Side Landfill. According to SPS, this park will soon be replaced due to landfill regulations and safety concerns. SPS is restricted to constructing the new middle school and playfields within the buffer zone alone, leaving no room for the originally proposed dog park.
This new park on the corner of 63rd and Regal will not necessarily replace the existing park behind the two schools, but rather serve as a benefit to the neighborhood nearby.SPS and the city said for those who want to take their dogs to a large dog park, they should go to the Spokanimal Dog Park at High Bridge; the new park will be quite small at only about 1.7 acres.
While some neighbors in the area are eager for a dog park no matter what:
“It’s a dog park, we need a dog park. Especially with all the apartments coming in, I’m sure all these families don’t have yards or things like that, we need a place to go to let our dogs run around,” Emerald Nisbet, a neighbor living nearby, said.
Two neighbors who live across the street from the proposed dog park are unhappy the district did not involve them in the planning process.
“I’m frustrated that they didn’t let the people living here know what was happening, I mean they have signs up for every building that they’ve been building,” Stoddard said.
However, Stoddard said SPS has not made the decision to build this park public enough.
“If the park does go in, I would like to see a parking lot and privacy fencing,” she said.
Stoddard has two main concerns about the new park: parking and fencing, both toward the goal of improving safety. She said having a parking lot is a must – due to the high volume of traffic before and after school, she worries without one the intersection would become even more dangerous for commuting parents and kids walking down the road.
SPS said while they understand this concern, a parking lot is not in the plan for the new park.
Stoddard’s second concern involves the type of fencing that will be used around the park. She hopes the district will use privacy fencing instead of chain-link fencing. She said this would be key in ensuring the safety of the young kids walking past the park on a daily basis.
“We’re not necessarily opposed to the dog park, but we did want to be included in the planning,” Stoddard said.
Construction has not quite begun for the new dog park, and SPS said they hear the community’s concerns. They plan to reach out to those who have made an effort to speak with them about those concerns.
