Local News

Raleigh planning to build new dog parks

The city of Raleigh will add dog parks after study shows demand.
Posted 2019-04-29T19:36:50+00:00 - Updated 2019-04-30T22:47:00+00:00
Raleigh to add four dog parks

It's hard to drive anywhere in the city of Raleigh and not see new apartment buildings under construction.

This may be a great way to fit the growing population into smaller spaces, but it's not great for dogs.

Now city leaders are trying to do something about it.

"A little over half of all residential units are now multifamily housing," said T.J. McCourt, the planning supervisor for Raleigh Parks and Recreation. "So we are looking at apartments, townhouses other places where people don't necessarily have access to a back yard, a fenced in area for their dogs to play."

The city of Raleigh launched a study on dog parks last summer. The results were released in February and gave planners an idea of how the area's population is changing.

"As a park system, as a city, we have to adapt to these trends, these changes in how people use our public spaces," McCourt said.

One of the key findings in the study is that more than one-third of all Raleigh residents own dogs and the city is expecting to be home to more than 100,000 canines by 2023.

"Increasingly, as we see more people come in, more people move to the city, we know that they need a place to take their dogs outside to exercise, to socialize with their pets," said McCourt.

Cody Canepa lives within a short walk of the Millbrook Exchange Dog park and uses it at least once a week to get his dogs out of his apartment.

"This is great because they can't really run around in an apartment and dogs love to be very active," he said.

Millbrook is one of five dog parks in the city and Raleigh now has plans to add four more. This would put the area ahead of places like Atlanta and Dallas and make it the city with the most dog parks in North Carolina.

Durham has three while Cary and Chapel Hill have two each. Charlotte currently leads the way with six dog parks.

"We understand much better now how people use dog parks and how they fit into the park system as a whole," said McCourt.

The new dog parks currently in the planing stages will be located in Northwest Raleigh, Southeast Raleigh and the Five Points area. The parks will be paid for out of the Parks and Recreation budget and each new park location will be part of a master plan created with resident input.

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