Jane Dealy lives in Chevy Chase.
As Montgomery Parks is gearing up to spend $500,000 of taxpayer funds for a dog park in Bethesda-Chevy Chase, the coronavirus pandemic has left many Montgomery County residents in dire need: unemployed, unable to pay rent and relying on food banks to feed their families.
Some background: In June 2019, Montgomery Parks conducted a feasibility study for a proposed dog park in Norwood Local Park. An open town hall meeting by Zoom was held on Nov. 10 to gather community input about the project. All attendees were muted. A survey on the parks department website allows for comments, with a Jan. 14 deadline. If the decision is made to build the dog park, construction will begin in the Spring of 2021.
Norwood Park’s 17 acres are a treasure for the community. It has two playgrounds, five tennis courts, a lighted basketball court, two softball fields, an activities building and the Norwood Park Preschool.
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The park’s remaining undesignated space is earmarked for the 18,000-square-foot dog park — equal to one-third the size of a regulation football field. The dog park would be enclosed by a six-foot-high black metal fence, 50 feet from the lower playground, primarily used for toddlers. The surface of the dog park would be a combination of synthetic materials, which would replace more desirable and more environmentally friendly grass.
For Montgomery Parks to satisfy its commitment to be compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, eight-to-10-foot-wide concrete sidewalks will be installed on the grassy area leading to the dog park. By creating a fenced-in dog park in the center of the park, the natural beauty of the park would be taken away.
Today, this undesignated space is an open, bucolic vista that offers setups for Frisbee, volleyball and soccer. Children learn to ride their two-wheelers on the grass. Families gather informally for reunions and picnics in the open space. Schools hold their annual field days there. Summer camps use the space for activities. Sports clubs depend on that space as well.
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Norwood Park is heavily used with a serious parking problem. Parking was not addressed in the feasibility study. Nor has there been an acoustic study done as to dog park noise interfering with neighbors.
When the Dog Park Site Suitability Study was approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board in June 2019, the impact of a global pandemic was inconceivable. Almost a year into the worse economic disaster in the history of the United States, the planning board, with Montgomery Parks input, will review and decide, either later this winter or in early spring 2021, if $500,000 should be allocated to build a dog park.
The Montgomery County Planning Board and Montgomery Parks have a moral imperative to reconsider this undertaking. It would be morally wrong to spend half a million dollars on a dog park when there are people in Montgomery County, who, through no fault of their own, are in a desperate situation.
The right decision would be heart felt. It is a time to give — and a time to give thanks in this holiday season.
Read more:
Ruth Marcus: My dog, Tank, was a precious creature that saw no dividing lines
Ingrid Newkirk: Dogs deserve better than an outdated beauty pageant
Diana Nyad: I have the pandemic to thank for this precious time with my old hound, Teddy
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