Million-dollar dog park moves closer to reality

A 30-acre, million- dollar dog park featuring doggy wash stations, water fountains, lakes, caged play areas, walking trails — and even pickleball courts for owners — moved one step closer to reality in Palm Beach County.

After years of requests from local residents, initial design plans were unveiled for the project to be located at The Village of Windsor near Hypoluxo and Lyons roads, said Eric Call, the director of Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation.

It’s an area surrounded by retirement communities and family homes that are too close together to allow dogs to run freely.

“This scored very high on needed facilities when we surveyed folks,” Call said. “There’s not a place where dogs can run lose so having a place like this in this area would be very popular.”

The county already has four dog parks: Lake Ida in Delray Beach, South County Regional Park in West Boca Raton, Okeeheelee Park in West Palm Beach, and John Prince Park in Lake Worth Beach. The new location of the potential park aims to serve communities farther west in the Lake Worth and Boynton Beach areas.

“I imagine people all the way from Delray would come up to this and people as far north as West Palm would come down to this,” he said, adding that the

Lyons Road corridor where the park would be situated has seen explosive development in the past five years, only further cementing the need for the park.

The plans are still preliminary and need approval from the Palm Beach County Board of Commissioners. If it does get approved, there is still the issue of funding. Coming in at close to $1 million, the hefty price tag comes from the need to build the park from the ground up. The cost of adding drainage, pipes and other groundwork can get expensive.

“That’s where a lot of the costs come in,” Call said.

If approved by the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, they hope to start breaking ground this time next year. Full development is expected to take at least nine months to complete.

Depending on funding, the park would come in phases, with the first step to build up the dog park. Plans show a park boasting a few enclosures for dogs of all sizes to run around. Gazebos will be around the area with park benchers for families or owners to sit down. The park will also have wash station areas where owners can give their dogs baths and water fountains to keep dogs hydrated.

There are also plans to eventually add fitness trails or maybe pickleball courts at the park as well at a later date.

“People love trails and they love to walk,” Call added. “It’s our intention to build a park over there.”