Dog park funding plan has bite
Even though the city’s park development fund is all but dried
up, council members have made the right choice in allocating
$30,000 to expand a parking lot for a permanent dog park.
It has been nearly three years since the Hollister Dog Owners
Group formed with the goal of opening such a park in Hollister.
HDOG, as the nonprofit is called, has made steady progress along
the way and received the most recent boost last week with the
council’s approval of the allocation.
Dog park funding plan has bite
Even though the city’s park development fund is all but dried up, council members have made the right choice in allocating $30,000 to expand a parking lot for a permanent dog park.
It has been nearly three years since the Hollister Dog Owners Group formed with the goal of opening such a park in Hollister. HDOG, as the nonprofit is called, has made steady progress along the way and received the most recent boost last week with the council’s approval of the allocation.
The idea for a dog park in the airport area has been popular with citizens, while the many canine lovers in Hollister have been restricted to using an unofficial dog facility at Klauer Park, or absurdly driving to Gilroy or Morgan Hill to use theirs.
The city’s partnership with HDOG allows the group access to critical funding sources and the land at Airport Park as well. It is a rare use of the funds because Hollister’s park development dollars have dwindled rapidly in recent years.
That revenue pot is attached to impact fees generated through housing development – the more homes, the more money to use on parks, a logical relationship. But with the sewer moratorium, the housing bubble’s explosion and a subsequent recession killing the new housing market for most of the past decade, the parks development fund has gone to the dogs with it.
So with any sort of future revenue stream depending on a turnaround in the local building industry, it leaves a relatively nominal amount of funding to use in the short term. Hollister officials are limited and can choose to either spend the money on piecemeal, minor improvements to many city parks that need them or make a more immediate commitment to a larger endeavor – which they have chosen to do with the dog park.
While HDOG has sought other outside sources as well – necessary to maximize the park’s prospects to attract outside users – the county in its own master plan recommends a dog park project, and its officials should consider seriously committing to a partnership with Hollister.
The park would, after all, widely benefit residents in both jurisdictions.
As those other municipal dog parks have shown in Gilroy and, particularly Morgan Hill, which has an array of amenities, such facilities can become a constant draw for local residents and also for outsiders.
Though it is a minimal impact, there should be some positive economic activity generated near the dog park.
