East Harriet Farmstead Neighborhood Group Expresses Concern About Dog Park Process

In a letter sent to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Monday, Nicholas Petersen, chair of the East Harriet Farmstead Neighborhood Association, expressed concern that the board's citizen advisory committee on the Southwest Minneapolis dog park might interfere with long-term park board planning at Robert's Bird Sanctuary.

"Currently, two of the proposed sights for an off-leash area either abut, or occupy the location of the Robert’s Bird Sanctuary," Petersen wrote to park board commissioners. "The Long Term Management Plan is a necessary piece of information required before the CAC begins its work if the process is to be true to principles of community engagement and respectful of the planning partnerships already in place."

Peterson also points out that the Linden Hills Neighborhood Council doesn't have a seat on the park board's Citizen Advisory Committee, despite the fact that two of three sites considered for an off-leash dog area in and around Lyndale Park impact Linden Hills.

"We also ask the charge and membership be reviewed so that the CAC can authentically meet its responsibility in engaging the public," Petersen wrote. "Deliberative planning supported by core principles of community engagement will lead to a long term sustainable outcome as recent experience has shown."

The East Harriet, Kingfield, Tangletown and Lynnhurst neighborhoods are all represented on the citizen advisory committee.

The advisory committee is set to meet for the first time this Monday. The appointment of its members by the park board came after a long controversy about a proposed off-leash area in Martin Luther King Park in Kingfield, which the board removed from consideration after community protests of the plan.