What's The Status Of Elmhurst Dog Park?

ELMHURST, IL — The Elmhurst Park District was planning a number of large projects with the hopes that voters would approve a property tax increase to pay for them. Amid the pandemic, the park board in late March decided to stop planning for a potential referendum in November.

One of the projects on the list was a dog park. This week, a resident questioned the status of the dog park proposal in the comments section of Elmhurst Patch's website. In 2017, the district purchased 3.4 acres at 0S761 Old York Road for a future dog park. The estimated price tag is $1.7 million.

"After this current situation stabilizes and the long-term financial impacts are known, the Park Board and staff will consider new strategies to address large-scale project priorities," Jim Rogers, the district's executive director, said in an email to Patch this week. "We will continue gathering community feedback to ensure that we meet the community’s future parks and recreation needs in a fiscally responsible and sustainable manner."

The dog park, Rogers said, was on hold because of the effects of the pandemic. The district, he said, has a long history of land "banking," which is the practice of acquiring open space to preserve it from development and holding it until money becomes available and a park can be built. The same practice was used for East End, Butterfield, Berens and Plunkett parks, he said.

In Patch's comments section, a couple readers said they thought the park district wasn't doing enough to maintain the Old York Road property.

However, the district spent $20,000 last year to have the entire site cleared of dozens of potentially hazardous standing dead trees, Rogers said. And district staff who volunteered their time on Earth Day removed more than two truckloads of trash from the site, he said.

"After having been cleaned up and made much more safe than it was prior to the Park District acquiring it, at this point in time it is being left in a natural state," Rogers said in an email.

Read more:

Elmhurst Parks Plan Likely To Be Scaled Back

Elmhurst Park District Plan Delayed

No Park Tax Hike On Elmhurst Ballot