Cabin John Regional Park is about to go to the dogs. Part of it anyway.
Twenty-five percent of county families own dogs and those dogs need open areas in which to exercise and interact without being a nuisance to other county park users, the owners say.
“[The parks provide] socialization for the dog. Dogs that are unsocialized tend to be more dog aggressive, they don’t tend to be as good citizens of the community,” said Joyce Winston, president of the Montgomery County Dog Owners Group. “A tired dog is a good dog. Not everyone has large areas for their dogs to run. Not everyone has multiple dogs for their dogs to play with.”
In response to community requests, the Montgomery County Planning Board established a site selection committee in August to identify possible locations for roughly one-acre “Dog Exercise Areas.” Targeting the areas within a two-mile radius of Cabin John Regional Park in Potomac and the Leisure World retirement community in Rockville, the committee narrowed a long list of more than 50 sites to seven sites in the vicinity of Cabin John and four sites near Leisure World.
The Planning Board voted Thursday to approve two of those sites — the former “Noah’s Ark” site at Cabin John and the Olney Manor Recreational Park site near Leisure World — while holding a second Rockville site open for future consideration. Board members noted that approving the sites for dog exercise areas is not the same as approving funding for their construction.
“WE’RE HERE today to approve locations for future dog parks but we’re not here to approve the funding that will be done as part of the normal budget process,” Planning Board Chairman Derick Berlage said. “The need is clear. Twenty-five percent of the county’s households own dogs, and by and large the whole county has leash laws, so it’s clear that these will serve an important public purpose, not just for the dogs but for their owners. But it is something new and we are in a constrained budgetary environment and getting something new into the program is difficult.”
Most of the discussion at Thursday’s meeting focused on cost estimates and other considerations surrounding the Leisure World locations. The Olney Manor site is estimated to cost $93,000 — though planners said that estimates for the cost of netting between the park and an adjacent ball field were perhaps $20,000 too high.
Still, cost issues have raised concerns. “This has got to be seen as absurd, that we’re willing to spend the cost for a dog park that you can buy a residence for a homeless family. And much as I like dogs, I like humans and think that they have more value,” commissioner Allison Bryant said.
At $35,000, the Cabin John is less controversial in terms of cost. The price tag reflects the cost of land preparation, plus the erection of chain link fencing, park benches, and trash cans and “mutt mitts” for droppings.
BUT RESIDENTS have raised other concerns. The park is nearing or past the Planning Commission-established ratio of developed area to green space.
“We request that if you approve this that you reach a point and say ‘No new facilities in Cabin John Regional Park,’ issue an instruction that no one should even consider it for additional facilities,” said Seven Locks Civic Association Co-President Jerry Garson. “I mean enough is enough.”
Bryant agreed, saying, “It must be a type of mysticism about Cabin John Park. What is it about Cabin John Park that every thing that comes up, we want to put something in Cabin John Park?”
Berlage rejoined that Cabin John and Wheaton regional parks are the only two parks serving “the densest, most developed, most populated part of the county” and that Wheaton already has a dog exercise area.
If the dog park is built, much-needed sidewalks along Tuckerman Lane and Westlake Drive should be built as well, Garson said.
“You keep talking about making parks accessible to people that can walk to it. One of the requests that I’ve gotten from the people in the area is can you please provide a sidewalk along Cabin John Park, especially on Tuckerman Lane so that people who have their dogs can actually walk to the park without getting in their car,” he said.
Sidewalks have been an ongoing concern of Garson’s organization, which was originally formed to lobby for sidewalks along Seven Locks Road.
“Cabin John seems to work extremely well, cost wise, location wise, size wise. There is some issue about the parking and certainly on my wish list is sidewalks to Cabin John. … But basically it’s a great site,” Commissioner Meredith Wellington said.