The planning process is underway for a new Frisco dog park.
Frisco City Council members unanimously approved a $587,500 contract with Studio tla LLC to design a dog park inside Harold Bacchus Community Park at a Nov. 7 meeting.
Council members Bill Woodard and Brian Livingston were not present at the meeting, making the vote a 4-0 approval.
The gist
Forest Bark Dog Park would be the first dog park in east Frisco, according to a meeting presentation.
The dog park itself would take up a small portion of the approximately 79-acre overall park, according to meeting documents. Park features also include:
- A fenced dog park
- An interactive dog splash pad
- New sidewalks and trails
- Updated park signage, lighting and irrigation
- An observation deck
The other side
Two Frisco residents living near the proposed park spoke against the project during the meeting, stating it would harm the trees that made them love living there in the first place.
The design contract was originally listed under the meeting’s consent agenda—which consists of multiple items that typically are not up for public comment and are able to be passed with one vote—but it was pulled to allow the residents to speak, council member Angelia Pelham said.
“We already, as humans, encroach quite a bit. ... Let us preserve what is remaining there,” resident Rashmi Abraham said.
Both Abraham and the second resident, Scott Ludeman, said they love dogs and would be happy to see a park for them in Frisco—just not at the cost of losing trees.
Keep in mind
Council’s approval of the contract does not mean any construction will start automatically, Parks and Recreation Director Shannon Coates said.
“The contract is not giving us authorization to go out and start cutting down trees and just build a park,” she said. “What the contract is authorizing us to do is to work with the design firm, to go through and do these environmental studies to look at the trees to do the survey to make an assessment.”
There will be opportunities for community meetings once the studies are done, which is part of all park planning processes—including Grand Park, Coates said. The dog park is also expected to uphold the parks department’s pillar of preservation, Coates said.
“This is a very forested area because that is very important to us. ... One of our five pillars in our department is preservation and conservation,” she said.
Character imagery presented to council members also proposed a mostly forested area for the park to exist in.
Stay tuned
A site plan for Forest Bark will be presented to council at a future meeting once Studio tla LLC officials finish their designs and continue with the planning process.
“I think one of the key things here will just be the communication to the residents and the neighbors while the planning process takes place,” council member Tammy Meinershagen said.
