Dog park in Bluffton's Oscar Frazier Park advances
Despite concerns from some Bluffton Park residents about how a dog park would affect their neighborhood, Bluffton Town Council gave its blessing Tuesday to the proposed facility inside Oscar Frazier Park.
Town staff will now update Oscar Frazier Park's master plan and the agreement with the Friends of Bluffton Dog Park, allowing the development to continue. Town council members agreed the location -- east of Recreation Court near the town's public works building -- made sense for the new dog park, but asked town staff to look into where the funding for the park's maintenance would come from.
"The location is perfectly acceptable," councilman Ted Huffman said. "I don't have any problem with it."
Several Bluffton Park residents said they were concerned the park would create noise and odor issues and make it dangerous if aggressive dogs got loose.
Pat Hancock, a Bluffton Park resident who said she has sold 75 properties in the neighborhood, told Bluffton Town Council members she worried opening a dog park would hurt property values.
"People don't want to buy and rent properties when they can hear barking dogs in the vicinity," she said. "Pin Oak Street is already congested. Adding a dog park will only worsen the situation. Find another place for it; not in our community."
But proponents of the dog park, among them Friends president Deb Karambelas, attempted to allay those fears. Karambelas said concerns over loose dogs, noise and dog waste wouldn't be issues since "people who come to dog parks scoop the poop."
About 25 group members were on hand to support the location, many of them speaking in between opponents' statements. The group members said the issues raised by the neighborhood's residents weren't problems at dog parks around the area, such as Hilton Head Island, Belfair, and Sun City.
The dog park also has support from inside the neighborhood. Group treasurer Diana Radcliffe said a petition created in support of the dog park about 36 hours before Tuesday's meeting had 60 signatures by its start.
"The park will be filled with responsible dog owners that will keep a close eye on it," dog park supporter James Haberberger said. "These problems don't exist in Sun City or on Hilton Head."
Councilman Fred Hamilton also urged the dog park group and the neighborhood's property owners association to meet to resolve concerns.
The proposed location inside Oscar Frazier Park was switched by town staff in their report Tuesday.
Beaufort County administrator Gary Kubic recommended a parcel at the southwest corner of the park in his letter to Mayor Lisa Sulka in October.
But town planning and community development manager Kendra Lelie said the location would take away space from an area that already sees heavy use. Sulka said the western location raised noise concerns, since it would be directly across the street from several homes in the neighborhood.
Lelie presented the new location, on the east side of Recreation Court behind the town's public works building. Tennis courts envisioned for that land would be moved to the west side of Recreation Court, she said.
Lelie said town staff would also look into how much lease and liability insurance agreements would cost, both issues that must be resolved before any design or construction can start. In the Friends of Bluffton Dog Park's agreement with the town, the group would be responsible for raising money to pay those costs.
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This story was originally published January 13, 2015 at 8:44 PM with the headline "Dog park in Bluffton's Oscar Frazier Park advances."