Unfortunately the board decided that we could not provide or create a dog park regardless of the petition. Following are some of the many reasons from the minutes of that meeting for this decision:
1. Liability. Creating a dog park creates a need for specific liability insurance to cover the potential lawsuits that may occur from dog bites against humans and other dogs.
2. Rights of nearby home owners. Creating a dog park would potentially consolidate dogs in a limited space. Barking and the smell of feces would certainly be noticeable by those residents located next to the dog park.
3. Use of common area. The common areas are designated for all residents. Creating a single use that would make other uses impossible would violate the intention of the common area.
4. Expense. In addition to the cost of specialized insurance, would be the cost of removing the feces. Who is going to do this? Who pays for this? What happens if it isn’t removed? Would a code violation be cited against our Association? Would dogs become ill? Would insect populations grow?
5. No other neighborhood associations have dog parks.
6. Fencing. Any dog park would need to have a fence. This creates a potential violation with our own covenants (no chain link) and raises additional questions about expense and safety.
7. Motivation. If the motivation for a dog park was the hope that people would take their dogs there and clean up after them, and reduce the number of dogs that are walked and leave droppings in people’s yards or the park strips – then the outcome is very unlikely to be achieved. People who are not responsible when walking their dogs, are not going to be responsible enough to take their dogs (in many cases much further away) to a dog park and then clean up after them. What would most likely happen is that we would go to an enormous expense to create something that becomes a hazard without value.
We have made it a priority in recent months to try to raise awareness of the need to clean up after one's dog, and we'll continue to do so. We made an issue of it at the annual meeting, and our next newsletter will talk about the problem and we will feature it soon on the message sign at the entrance. Thanks for your input and concern.
Jim Bordner
President, Still Water Board
