Jodi Olson of Portland watches Zia, from left, Goose and Finn play at the unofficial dog park at East Fifth Street and Blandford Drive on Monday afternoon. Olson is a professional dog walker who often comes by the park after picking up Finn from his nearby home. Photos by Alisha Jucevic/The Columbian Photo Gallery
Sherri Rutherford takes Zia, her family’s black Labrador retriever, to a small dog park north of the Columbia River a couple of times per week.
The fenced area, slightly more than a half-acre at East Fifth Street and Blandford Drive, provides a convenient location where Zia can get some exercise for 15 to 20 minutes.
“It’s a nice place where she can run and run and run — and not tear up my yard,” said Rutherford, who lives in the Ellsworth Springs neighborhood, as she watched Zia play Monday afternoon.
For nearly 20 years, the property next to Vancouver’s Water Station No. 4 has been an “unofficial” dog park, a place where urban pooches can run, frolic and sniff whatever dogs like to sniff, all without the indignity of being tethered by a leash.
The off-leash area is about to shed its unofficial status and become a city-sanctioned dog park, albeit on what might be an interim basis.
Last month, the Vancouver City Council authorized the city to sign an agreement with Columbia Grove LLC, an affiliate of Killian Pacific.
The Vancouver developer has submitted plans for a phased office-commercial project on 17.1-acre parcel between East Fifth Street and Southeast Columbia House Boulevard west of the dog park. The proposed development includes a three-story office building, a three story office and medical building, a two-story retail, restaurant and office building, and a one-story day care building.
A Vancouver City Council staff report says that Killian Pacific will upgrade the dog park “to improve the aesthetics and use of the site,” including:
• Building a double-gated entrance, a standard feature at off-leash areas so dogs can be untethered before entering the dog park.
• Adding fencing to create separate areas for large and small dogs.
• Constructing one or more benches, as well as an upgraded dog waste station.
• Installing a sign with rules for the off-leash area.
One of the more splashy upgrades will be mesh netting installed on the perimeter fence depicting the heads of different dog breeds, with one dog head every 10 feet.
Thomas Eldridge, assistant development manager at Killian Pacific, said the improvements should be finished in the next two weeks.
Eldridge said the mesh netting likely will be on the outside of the fence so the public can see it.
The agreement between Vancouver and Killian Pacific is for 10 years, but either party can terminate it with 60 days’ written notice.
The council staff report says that no city funds will be used or are expected to be used. The report also says that placement of improvements and their long-term maintenance are outlined in the agreement, but the document contains nothing about maintenance, either of improvements or the dog park itself.
Brian Carlson, Vancouver’s public works director, acknowledged that the agreement doesn’t offer maintenance specifics.
“It’s still a little fluid from the standpoint that we want to see how it goes,” he said.
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Interim amenity
How long the dog park will be available isn’t known. Carlson said the city may eventually need the property for drinking water treatment or additional wells.
“Right now, we don’t have anything planned,” he said. “It could be three years from now, it could be 25 years from now. But when that date comes and when we need to use it for water development purposes, that’s what we will use it for.”
The city is concerned that dog owners might see the off-leash area as a permanent amenity, so much so that it will install a sign advising users of the park’s interim status.
“The locals have used it for years,” Carlson said. “And we have allowed that use, with the understanding that as long as responsible behavior occurs, we will let that use continue.”
Responsible behavior includes picking up what your dog leaves behind. In 2015, the city signed an agreement with the Watershed Alliance of Southwest Washington to install a dog waste station in the park. The alliance subsequently worked with the Evergreen Shores Neighborhood Association for the ongoing upkeep of the waste station.
Jodi Olson, a professional dog walker from Portland, also was at the park this week with a couple of her canine charges, both of which she has walked since they were puppies.
Olson said not all dog owners have been diligent about cleaning up after their pets. She recently filled a Krispy Kreme bag with dog waste left inside the park, to the point that it would not fit in the modestly sized waste dispenser.
Olson said she has 12 regular clients and avoids dog parks packed with canines.
“It’s too much,” she said. “That’s when problems happen.”
Rutherford said Zia often is the only dog in the East Fifth Street park when she stops by, typically after lunch and before she picks up her children from school.
“It’s kind of taking care of one kid before you get the other kids,” she said.
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