Southeast Area Park Meeting

Last night's meeting about Southeast Area Park was very good. The plan is essentially to put a temporary wooden snow fence around approximately one acre. That will serve as an off-leash location until Swift Run is finally finished.

The location of the proposed dog run is in the far east edge of the park between the gravel parking lot and Platt Rd. It is apparently the site of a former house. There is a line of mature trees here that will offer shade. Frankly this is the nicest location that I've seen in any off-leash proposals in terms of landscape and access.

There were around 15-20 people at the meeting. Almost all were in favor and very vocally supportive, it was nice to see the turnout. I spoke with one neighbor who was concerned because he doesn't want the off-leash area to become permanent and would rather have Swift Run finished quickly. That is a sentiment I share deeply. Nobody else spoke against the plan, but one person seemed like he wasn't excited about the idea.

Realistically, I find it difficult to see how there could be much opposition. Even if this were a plan for a permanent park, it is on a piece of land that is far from anything else and currently completely abandoned. The plan doesn't involve any landscape modification or tree-cutting except the erection of a four-foot fence. Any opposition at this point would have to be pure NIMBYism.

The timeline for this project seems to be "very soon." Amy Kuras, the planner in charge, said that she intends to get started as soon as she gets the green light from higher up and it should be a quick project. The only potential delay is City Council approval. As you'll recall from earlier posts, the off-leash ordinance change included language that requires any off-leash area to be designated by Council. That means that this probably has to get on the agenda and be voted on at a Council meeting before work can start. The next meeting is in two weeks so we'll be doing an action item soon to get this through ASAP.

It genuinely looks like Parks & Rec is trying to find us a partial solution as quickly as they can. I'm thrilled with this plan and I hope this momentum continues.

NB - I have gotten quite a bit more info on Olson park and I think my early skepticism may have been partially unnecessary. I'll post more on that later.