Dogs get more room to roam

Off-leash dog parks gaining popularity in Raleigh and other communities

RALEIGH -- City officials approved a third off-leash dog area last week, a move that will likely bolster the city's ranking whenever canines announce their list of the nation's most livable places.

The City Council's unanimous approval of the dog park, which is to be located in the city's southern end at Carolina Pines Park, is yet another sign that being canine-friendly is good politics in Raleigh.

"It's getting easier to get through the bureaucracy part," said Bill Hornsby, founder of People for Unleashed Pets, which had to lobby city officials for several years before they agreed to open the Millbrook Dog Park in North Raleigh.

These days the political discussion is less about whether to create a dog park and more about where that park should be located. The city now encourages planners to consider off-leash dog areas whenever they design a new park, which has resulted in a fourth dog park being proposed as part of the Leesville Community Park master plan in northwest Raleigh.

With the city's political winds blowing decidedly in favor of more dog parks, opposing a project that is widely viewed as an amenity can be tricky.

"I have a feeling there are some people who just think I'm a horrible person," said Mary Belle Pate, head of the Southwest Citizens Advisory Council. Pate, a cat owner, unsuccessfully opposed the Carolina Pines dog park on safety grounds. She's worried that sick or socially unstable dogs will frequent the park and cause problems.

Raleigh's dog parks do not require visitors to register or be residents of the city, nor do they check to see if a dog has been properly vaccinated. This is different from neighboring Cary, which charges residents $40 a year per dog and nonresidents $80 to use its park.

"I don't understand why there hasn't been more concern on the part of citizens that dogs are properly vaccinated," Pate said.

Councilman Thomas Crowder, who owns two dogs, did float the idea of creating a bar code system to scan dogs in at park entrances, but it was widely panned by the rest of the council.

Supporters of Raleigh's dog parks generally consider it a point of pride that any dog owner can visit the city's off-leash areas for free.

"It's the people-to-people interaction that makes or breaks a dog park," said Sonny Dowdy, of Friends of Millbrook Dog Park. "If only those who paid money can come in the gate, the whole dynamic changes."

With Carolina Pines likely to open sometime later this year, the next dog park case to come before the City Council will likely be Leesville, which is currently being reviewed by the Public Works Committee. Residents of a neighboring subdivision have hired an attorney and are trying to convince officials to relocate the dog park, which they believe is too close to residential homes.

After that, the battlefield is likely to shift back to an existing Raleigh park. The City Council gave the Parks, Recreation and Greenway Advisory Board enough money to create dog parks at two existing parks.

Carolina Pines is the first site selected by the board. The second site has not yet been identified.

Gail Till, chairman of the advisory board, said most opposition is of the not-in-my-backyard variety.

"There are no global dog park problems," Till said. "It's almost like apple pie."