City Council will finally discuss several dog park issues at their meeting tomorrow (Monday). The full council agenda with links to details about individual issues is available here.
PH4, B3, and DS2 all deal with tweaks to the ordinance change that passed this summer allowing the city to establish off-leash areas. Essentially they are changing the wording to allow Parks staff to approve dog run rules without Council approval.
PH5 and DS8 - "Approve Off-Leash Dog Play Areas at Swift Run Park, Southeast Area Park, Olson Park and Leslie Park and Establish User Fees for Off-Leash Dog Permits."
- Council will be approving plans for four dog runs including the temporary site at Southeast Area Park. After this step the process will be in the hands of Parks staff and should go much more quickly. You may be interested to read the details of DS8 (PDF link) because they include the proposed fee structure. I will have some details and thoughts on this later in the week, after I see how Council discussion goes.
DS18 - "Resolution to Approve a Partnership Agreement between the City of Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation Services Unit and Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission for the Development, Maintenance and Operation of a Dog Park at Swift Run Park."
- This is the formal agreement between the City and County regarding their partnership in the Swift Run project. This is also worth a read as it lays out the nitty gritty bureaucratic organization for Swift Run (PDF link). I will also have some thoughts on this later in the week.
This should be an interesting meeting. I don't foresee any challenge to any of these issues, so we should be a large step closer to legal off-leash play on Tuesday morning.
As always, feel free to come out and show your support during one of the public hearing sections
(PH4 and PH5) or by simply watching. If you can't make the meeting, you can catch it on Channel 16 live or Tuesday morning at 11:00.
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It's crazy that the City should be collecting fees for park use for dog owners when others (skaters and bikers using paved paths, tennis and basketball players using paved courts, children using play structures, and various "pick up" field sport athletes using fields that are expensive to maintain) are not expected (or asked)to pay similar fees. In addition to being asked to pay city license fees and document spay/neuter/vaccination/health status of our dogs we are also being asked to provide manpower to "help out the city" as self-policing dog park parkrangers (the money we generate through dog park fees apparently not going towards increasing park ranger staffing-- and thereby their abiliy to make dog parks safe and friendly for taxpaying dog owners--but, rather, perhaps, to the City's Police Dept so they can write taxpaying dog owners more tickets and generate even more revenue for the City?). Can we expect then, as taxpaying dog park users, a rebate for all the things we pay for but don't use? Ann Arbor sucks.
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