The popular dog park at Scioto Audubon Metro Park near the city center will be closed in December and will be replaced by the Columbus and Franklin County Metro Park. A new dog park with 33,000 square feet of artificial turf will be built near the entrance of the park.
Metro Parks is closing the existing dog park that has been open since 2012 because the Ohio Department of Transportation needs space for equipment and materials as it continues to rebuild Interstate 70 and 71 downtown.
Metro Parks spokesperson Peg Hanley said the state is paying Metro Parks $821,600 for the land.
The Metro Parks Board of Directors approved the purchase of 33,000 square feet of synthetic surface from Forever Lawn, Ohio for $383,126 this week. Metro Parks is purchasing it through the Houston-Galveston (Texas) Regional Council Procurement Program, which is used by 8,200 government agencies across the country.
The new 0.75 acre dog park will be built near the entrance of Scioto Audubon Metro Park, on the southern edge of the park near the park office. The current dog park is located at the northern end of the park, close to Interstate 70 and 71.
Metro Parks’ strategic planning and land acquisition manager Steve Studenmund (Steve Studenmund) stated that Metro Parks plans to close the existing dog park on December 3 and open a new dog park on the same day, although all The work will not be completed until next year.
He said the area will continue to build two shelters and a new parking lot in the dog park this winter.
The new dog park will also have grass. Studenmund said that Metro Parks staff will clean the synthetic turf, and the water will be discharged through the aggregate into the sewer and then into the rainwater pool.
"Hopefully we can allow park users to clean up after their pets," he said.
Studenmund said Metro Parks plans to launch a public education program in September to make Dog Park users aware of these changes.
On Thursday morning, Aubrey Verner visited the dog park for the first time with Edgar, her grey Shih Tzu. Verner, 24, has just moved from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Whitehall and has already been to the dog park in the Great Walnut Park in the East End.
She said that she had never taken Edgar to a dog park with artificial turf, but she thought it was a good idea because she was standing on the damp grass and had all the rain last week. "It's a bit muddy," she said.
She is also very happy that the new park will be close to the entrance of Scioto Audubon. "This is a hike back here," Verner said of the current dog park.
ODOT needed the current dog park space to rebuild I-70 and I-71 through the city center as it began work on the next phase of the $1.4 billion project. ODOT spokesperson Breanna Badanes said that this phase will include the reconstruction of Highway 315 and the bridge over the Scioto River. This work is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2022.
Badanes said the contractor may set up fences around the site.