After half a year of meetings, a task force charged with exploring the possibility of creating an off-leash dog park in the city of Mission made its recommendations to the city council, setting the stage for a new spot for pups to frolic in the city in the coming years.
The council approved the task force’s recommendation to form a new support group called “Friends of the Mission Dog Park” that would be responsible for identifying potential locations for the park and finding funding. As part of the task force’s recommendations, the city would not use any of the money currently budgeted for its parks and recreation programs for the creation of the dog park. Instead, the friends group would seek private funding and sponsorships to pay for the initiative.
Initially, the language of the resolution for the creation of the support group indicated that they should find presently unused space as potential locations for a dog park. Councilman Nick Schlossmacher, who sat on the task force, lobbied for the city to allow the group to look at existing park space as well. The council agreed, and approved an amended resolution.
“There are parks in this city that are accessible that we might have some good opportunity to convert over that we might be able to get a lot of use out of,” Schlossmacher said.
The task force visited off-leash dog parks in Lee’s Summit, Grandview, Leawood and Overland Park to get a sense of what’s required to make such an amenity available.
Leawood’s “Leawoof Dog Park,” which opened in 2014, is currently the closest off-leash site for most northeast Johnson County dog owners.