I know that this process has been much slower than we had hoped, but we have made a little progress towards our goal of establishing a dog park in Prince William County.  

Park Authority staff has met with County Planning Staff, Transportation staff, the County Attorney's office, the PW Landfill Manager, and a design firm.  As a result of these meetings, we have determined the following:

LRPRA site
 · A Public Facility Review and Site Plan review will be required for the site.

· The gravel entrance road and parking lot will be acceptable for access to the dog park

· An Engineering firm has volunteered to prepare the site plan for the dog park, one drawing has already been provided. 

· The Park Authority can enter into a license agreement with LRPRA for the site on Minnieville Road for a dog park (there was some question from the Lake Ridge Community that this would not be possible).

Independent Hill Site

· The County Attorney has determined that the BOCS will have to approve any 'change of use' on any portion of the landfill.

· The Landfill Committee has taken the position that they do not support re-use of the Little League fields, as a dog park.

· There may be potential for developing a dog park on another portion of the landfill property

Ridgefield Village Site

· The Park Authority Board has determined that this park is too small, to move forward with the addition of a dog park

The PA Board has indicated that they would like to see a citizen support group form, to ensure them that there is sufficient support for the dog park. I shared with them the difficulty in developing a support group and raising funds when there is not a site approved for the dog park.

The Park Authority has begun the Public Facility Review (PFR) process with the County Planning Office by submitting a request for determination on the LRPRA site. Our submission may be pulled for a Public Hearing. If that occurs we will notify you when the date for the hearing has been determined.

The Park Authority is notifying the neighbors surrounding the LRPRA site so that there will be no surprises when the Public Hearing occurs. We will also begin the park Masterplan process for the LRPRA by scheduling a stakeholders meeting. I will be contacting a few of you to represent the dog park supporters at this meeting. Typically these meetings have one representative from each of the special interest groups, surrounding communities, etc. that would have a stake in the ultimate development of the masterplan. This meeting is to get input to assist staff with developing the plan. Following the stakeholder meeting, several plans will be brought to the Park Authority Board for review. Edits will be made based on the input from the Board. The plan(s) will then be presented at a Public Hearing to allow citizens to give their input on the plans. This is another point where we will notify you and ask that you come and support your position.

We continue to hear from more citizens that are interested in dog parks. We are keeping a comprehensive list of those that would like to stay informed. We hope that you will all come forward at the public hearings and communicate your interest and support to the Planning Commission and Park Authority Board.

Our ability to get through these processes as quickly as we would like to, has been hindered due to the reductions in our staff.   We are working as quickly as we can.

Thanks for your patience and continued support.
 

Debbie Andrew

Operations, Planning & Support Services