Acton Board Of Selectmen Approves Main Street Dog Park

ACTON, MA — Acton's Board of Selectmen voted on Monday night to establish a dog park in town.

The park will be built at the 348 Main Street site closest to Rt. 2. Since the parcel of land is owned by the town, formal Town Meeting approval is not required. Acton's Dog Park Committee will be spearheading the project and put together the original proposal.

The committee will be seeking a Community Preservation Act award to cover 10 percent of the construction cost of the dog park with the balance being funded by an outside foundation. The CPA award will need to be approved at the 2021 Annual Town Meeting.

The Main Street parcel of land was one of 14 other sites under consideration by the Dog Park Committee. Main Street was chosen because of its size and ability to create two separate dog parks as well as open space to serve as a buffer zone and green space for neighbors.

The Board of Selectmen said they will work with the Isaac Davis Way neighbors/abutters in reaching satisfactory accommodations.

According to the Acton Dog Park Committee website, the Main Street parcel offered the opportunity to "Beautify a central property in Acton."

The two dog parks would be separated, with one park for small dogs and a second park for all dogs. The parks would be joined by a gazebo, according to preliminary sketches. The Main Street park would be 1.32 acres in size or about 57,000 square feet — the same size as a football field. By comparison, Ayer's dog park is about 43,000 square feet and Maynard's park is roughly half an acre.