Community Input for
a Dog Run at Irving Square Park
This form is to gather community in put for the funding, creation, and maintenance of a formal dog run in Irving Square Park. Continue reading to find more information about the dog run and its process. There is an upcoming Community Board hearing scheduled for October 16th at 6pm.
Getting a Legal Dog Run at Irving Square Park
In 2023, in part due to overwhelming feedback from the community, NYC District 37 Council Member Sandy Nurse earmarked $1.2mil in the 2024 budget to create a formal dog run at Irving Square Park.
After some pre-planning from NYParks, the dog run would be would be in the northeast corner of the park (Knickerbocker/Halsey) and include:
• A totally fenced-in area with safety gate
• Water & shade facilities
• Separate areas for all dogs and small dogs
• The surface would be special Doggy Turf that allows liquid waste to drain, while making solid remains easy to be cleaned up. This will reduce smell and improve cleanliness, while allowing proper drainage
The key goals of this proposal are to improve safety for families and children, improve the health of the park’s lawns/gardens, and strengthen our community. In leiu of a dog run, off-leash hours in the park would be eliminated.
The next step is NYParks presentation at the parks subcommittee of Brooklyn CB4, scheduled for September 23 at 6pm online and in person. Neighbors are encouraged to submit comments, and Friends of Irving Square Park will be presenting our community input collection.
If the parks subcommittee approves the plan, it will be presented to the general board later this winter for final approval.
There have been numerous attempts at setting up a dog run in Irving Square Park. Sadly, as of now, there is no legal dog run in the park.
This story from Bklyner has an in depth summary of the strongest case for a dog run in the last iteration of this group from 2018.
There was another push more recently through Participatory Budgeting which also failed.