Dog park in works for LR’s downtown

LITTLE ROCK — Downtown dog owners are working on getting their own park for off-leash quality time.

The MacArthur Park Working Group will meet today at 2 p.m. at the Mac-Arthur Military Museum to talk about potential amenities for a proposed dog park to be located in the park. The group is hoping the city will use some of the money from the new city-wide sales tax that has been dedicated for park improvements to help pay for the park.

“Ideally we would be able to leverage part of the money from the sales tax,” said Sharon Priest, executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership and chairman of the MacArthur Park Working Group.

“With that money, if we could raise $15,000, it would give us more that we could do than just the everyday dog park. We could start talking more about the amenities.”

Priest said the group may decide to sell memorial bricks with the option of inscribing the name of the donor’s favorite pet. She said the group also will conduct several social media campaigns to encourage people to support the effort and vote on designs they’d like to see happen.

“I think these kinds of features do promote a sense of community, especially among the younger people who are moving into downtown,” Priest said. “It’s all about quality of life issues. Years ago, you didn’t see people with dogs or strollers walking downtown but now, you see it all the time. Having pedestrian paths, bicycle paths, walkability and, you know, dog parks, is important for people in an urban setting.”

MacArthur Park is to receive $500,000 over the lifetime of the city’s three-eighths percent capital improvements sales tax, which will expire at the end of 2021. Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore said the city staff is open to having a discussion about the various funding options that may be available, but no conversation had happened as of Friday.

“We’ll definitely work with them to determine the priorities for the working group,” Moore said. “As this money comes in, there are a variety of ways the different groups will opt to spend it, and certainly we will be happy to discuss that.”

Residents at today’s meeting will be asked to vote on some of the potential features they’d like to see at the dog park, said working group member Keith Canfield, who’s been spearheading the design campaign.

Canfield said beyond the standard fencing and water features, residents could opt to have public art, wireless internet options, splash pads, agility courses and a number of other features.

If built, it would be the second full-size, off-leash dog park in the city of Little Rock. The first is off Rebsamen Park Road at Murray Park.