Politics & Government
Council Gives Green Light to Dog Park at Thresher Fields
On Tuesday night, the Eagan City Council OKed a budget amendment and ordinance change to facilitate the development of an off-leash dog park.
Local canines have a new reason to wag their tails.
On Tuesday night, the Eagan City Council voted unanimously to approve a budget amendment and a city ordinance change to allow the development of a 6.38-acre off-leash dog park at Thresher Fields. City officials estimate development of the field could cost as much as $45,000. Development of the off-leash dog area will likely be completed this summer, according to Eagan Parks and Recreation Director Juli Seydell Johnson.
"I’m glad this is finally happening," City Councilor Paul Bakken said on Tuesday night. "Aside from better serving our Canine American constituents, it will also be nice to see more daytime use of that park and that parking lot," he joked.
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The city's Advisory Parks Commission began discussing the dog park last year, after city staff received several requests from residents for an off-leash dog area. There are approximately 3,000 dogs currently licensed in the city, according to a report prepared by Seydell Johnson, but the nearest dog parks are in Burnsville and Rosemount.
In January, the for the park: , a 77-acre park in northeast Eagan; , a 93-acre park in west central Eagan; and Rahn Park, a 42-acre site in southwest Eagan.
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City officials ranked each park using 19 different criteria, and Thresher Fields scored highest, earning 32 out of 38 possible points on the city's evaluation system. City officials say Thresher Fields is farther from residential areas, which could minimize complaints about noise or odors from nearby residents. The site is also near a park pavilion with a toilet, water fountains and other amenities, which could be used by dog park visitors. The park will have a mix of woodland and open terrain, and will border a small lake.
The cost to develop the park won't come at any additional expense to Eagan taxpayers, Seydell Johnson told the council at the meeting. The city plans to use existing money drawn from another project that came in under budget to fund the park.
Although the council approved the budget and ordinance amendments for the project on Tuesday, the dog park will return to the parks commission for additional discussion in March. Seydell Johnson said the commission still has to hammer out the operating rules and procedures for the area.
Eagan's lack of an official off-leash dog area brought local dog owner and park proponent Terry Lippert to the council meeting on Monday.
"I applaud the council for considering this, I know there are a lot of people in Eagan who have to go outside this city to let their dogs run at an off-leash park, and being that Eagan is the eighth-largest city in Minnesota, I think it’s about time we have something like this in our city," he said.
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