CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — A city council committee this week will hold a public hearing on legislation that would allow the city to build its first dog park.
The hearing is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday in council chambers at City Hall before council’s Planning and Development Committee. It will be the second this year on Council Vice President Davida Russell’s push to bring a dog park to Cleveland Heights.
Russell, who chairs the committee, wrote the proposed legislation to allow dog parks in November 2023 after council passed legislation, also written by Russell, that allowed residents to walk their leashed dogs in all city parks.
At the first public hearing in May, residents raised concerns about the health effects of dog feces and urine so Russell vowed to hold another hearing with a veterinarian on hand to address those concerns.
Wednesday’s meeting will feature a vet from Oak Tree Veterinary Hospital in Cleveland Heights, as well as officials in neighboring cities with dog parks to discuss potential amenities, Russell said at a full council meeting last week.
The city has yet to announce a location for the proposed dog park. The city’s then-parks and recreation director, Kelly Ledbetter, said at the May meeting that the city was eying either Cumberland Park, Denison Park or a parcel of land near Superior and Lee avenues as potential spots.
The move is the latest to make the city more dog-friendly to its residents.
Dogs were banned in public parks until 2013, when council OK’d a pilot program to let people walk their dogs in Cain Park. For the next decade, Cain Park was the only public space that allowed dogs, and the city required them to be on-leash.
If the city moves forward with the dog park, it will be the only public space in the city for residents to have their dogs off-leash.
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