'Frivolous want': Battle over Burnet Woods dog park now in fourth year

Cincinnati Parks oversees 70 neighborhood parks, eight regional ones, 34 preserves and natural areas, 65 miles of hiking trails and 52 playgrounds.

And yet, month after month, since about 2020, one park project has been a constant source of contentious conversation: a dog park .

The puppy playground – an 8,800-square-foot site planned for Clifton’s Burnet Woods – is mentioned at nearly every monthly Park Board meeting.

It has triggered four surveys, informed seven “no” votes from community groups, attracted dozens of social media posts, generated hundreds of emails and even helped push out a Park Board member .

Last week, the five-member Park Board devoted a quarter of its two-plus-hour meeting to the dog park, discussing ways to reduce its cost.

Opponents remain opposed. “They have the opportunity to hit pause,” said Cynthia Duval, president of a group called Preserve Burnet Woods .

Supporters remain supportive. “I’m very confident that people are still excited to see a dog park in Clifton,” said Cassandra Clement, an organizer of Clifton Pop Up Puppy Party .

Emotion has replaced reasonable consideration, both sides say.

“The staying power (of the battle) has been quite a mystery,” said Rachel Wells, an opponent who lives on the edge of Burnet Woods.

'Better project available here'

Last week, Parks Director Jason Barron told Park Board members that the price tag for the dog park jumped nearly 40% – from $405,000 to $566,000 – with the rising cost of artificial turf. He presented a new design, the third in the project's life, that would reduce fake grass by 65%, add 2,400 square feet of sod and lower the overall cost to $381,000.

During 40 minutes of discussion , John Neyer, appointed to the board in February, became the first Park Board member to offer a skeptical public comment.

“I still think there is a better project available here,” Neyer said, citing concerns about turf and slow fundraising for the park. “I am, at this point, a ‘no’ on the project.”

Phyllis McCallum, a board member since early 2023, also voiced reservations. “I personally have not heard from enough supporters. I think the proponents need to be a little more vocal and a little more outspoken.”

Susan Castellini, a board member since 2013, said she was “tired of Burnet Woods squealing about any new ideas.”

Kick Lee, also appointed early last year, reported frequent emails from opponents. “I came in," he said, and his inbox was all "dog park, dog park."

In the end, board president Molly North won 5-0 support for her resolution asking parks administrators to price an alternative to artificial turf and secure the last $81,000 they need for the dog park before moving forward.

"I know it feels difficult to move on to the next agenda item,” said North, a three-year board member, “but we must.”

Neyer’s reply: “It’s a big system. Let’s do it.”

Opponents wage email campaign

With the pivot in plans, the board hopes it has “scratched the itch of Burnet Woods” advocates, in Castellini’s words.

Thus far, they’ve been a tenacious crowd, populated by the neighborhood's relatively affluent and educated activists.

Minutes of monthly board meetings routinely include pages and pages of emails about the dog park, mostly from opponents – six in February, seven for January. Last December’s minutes ran 236 pages, more than 100 generated by Wells as a summary of opposition. Last July, the minutes included the word “dog” more than 2,300 times in 352 pages.

Email writers accused the Park Board of ignoring opponents’ concerns, treating them with “eyerolling and unprofessional commentary,” and mishandling public funds. Marcia McLaughlin called the plan for Burnet Woods a “frivolous want” and “an insane amount of taxpayer money literally going to the dogs.”

Emails to City Hall echoed those concerns just before Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval tapped Neyer for the board. About a dozen writers asked the mayor not to give former board president Jim Goetz another six-year term, according to public records requested by The Enquirer.

Several cited the dog park controversy, saying the board was practicing top-down management instead of community engagement. Three Cincinnati Park Foundation leaders ‒ Lisa Diedrichs, the foundation board vice chair; Harry Kangis, an at-large board member; and past chair Dan Vogelpohl – joined the call to replace Goetz. “The relationship between the Foundation and the Parks is on the brink of ruin,” Vogelpohl said in his February note.

Erosion, mud pits and deferred maintenance

Dog parks have become flash points in other cities. That’s especially the case when one dog attacks another or owners ignore their pets to chat with other owners.

But none of Greater Cincinnati’s other 20-some parks for pups have generated as much talk as the one planned for Burnet Woods. Of the three under Cincinnati Parks' management – at Westwood Town Hall , Washington Park and Mount Airy Forest – only the Doris Day Dog Park in Mount Airy gets much attention. Chronic erosion and outdated equipment there need attention, users told parks officials in an early 2024 survey. Parks plans upgrades this year, park documents show.

Erosion – and the resulting “mud pit” that Doris Day users complained about – could be an issue in Burnet Woods, too, with grass coming in and turf potentially going out. Doris Day can, at least, rotate the use of its four acres to allow grass to regrow. That would be harder to do in Burnet Woods in a fifth of an acre dog park.

So, while opponents prefer grass to turf, they still fear a dog park would bring noise, dog waste, trash and traffic to Burnet Woods. And they’d rather parks officials spend money on lake upgrades, trail repairs and other projects in Burnet Woods, along with deferred maintenance needs across all Cincinnati parks .

Last week, board president North said she accepts the challenge to find dollars for other Burnet Woods work. “These are goals I hope to personally advocate for.”

Board member Lee challenged people who want the dog park to do their part. “Please show up to help take care of it,” he said. “Show that this is something that you do really want.”

Accessibility questions linger

A dog park for Burnet Woods will likely remain a hot topic through at least this winter, when it is slated to open. In the next one to two months, the Cincinnati Parks Foundation will work on raising the remaining funds and the contractor, Prus Construction, will redesign the project, Barron told the board. After that, the contractor will need up to six weeks to buy materials for the facility and then two months to build it.

Clement, the most vocal of supporters, thinks the new design – with a paved path winding through it – will work if people with limited mobility can navigate whatever replaces turf.

“As long as people with walkers, wheelchairs and strollers can reach significant areas within the dog park and all benches are accessible, then that eliminates the feeling of being 'less than,'” said Clement, whose adult son uses a wheelchair and walker.

She also hopes the new design will bring in new donations. “I’m surprised how slow the fundraising was,” she said, attributing it to “endless bullying and personal attacks from people opposed to it.”

Duval, the Preserve Burnet Woods leader, said parks is using “value engineering” to reduce accessibility purely for cost reasons.

“When you get this far into a project, it can be very difficult to admit that you may have made a mistake,” she said. “The tendency is to just keep chasing the project until you force it to fit.”

Wells, the Burnet Woods neighbor, thinks parks officials still have time to change course, renew community engagement and pick a dog park location more people like. “They can and they should,” she said. “It is never too late to do the right thing.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'Frivolous want': Battle over Burnet Woods dog park now in fourth year