BILLINGS — Amid Billings’ rising demand for extra canine parks, Mayor Invoice Cole has proposed remodeling an alley behind the Park One parking storage into an city canine park, a plan he says is crucial for town’s downtown revitalization.
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Billings mayor proposes canine park in downtown amid retail area sale
The Billings Metropolis Council introduced Monday night that the bottom flooring of the Park One parking storage at 2912 third Avenue North might quickly have a brand new proprietor. Town authorised a purchase order and sale settlement with TD Properties for the retail area at round $990,000. The sale won’t embrace the parking storage, which is able to stay beneath metropolis management.
In accordance with metropolis officers, the income from the sale will likely be directed towards the price of the brand new metropolis corridor constructing.
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Whereas the retail area is ready to alter fingers, Billings Mayor Invoice Cole expressed his disappointment that the potential for a brand new city canine park on the south aspect of the storage was not included within the deal. The alleyway behind the storage, he stated, might present a really perfect location for a canine park in an space that’s missing inexperienced areas.
“Greater than 50% of Montanans personal a canine, and for a few years, we acknowledge the significance of getting folks to reside downtown, actually be invested in downtown, but when we won’t accommodate their canines, we won’t accommodate folks. And so, sadly, town of Billings does not personal any grass in any respect downtown, and it isn’t canine pleasant,” stated Cole.
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Billings presently has solely three off-leash canine parks, with the most recent one at North Park accomplished final yr. Against this, close by Bozeman has nine off-leash dog parks. With newer housing developments having been built and proposed within the downtown space for an elevated inhabitants, Cole is pushing so as to add extra canine parks in Billings to fulfill that demand.
“Small canine parks exist in most of our bigger cities. It is actually necessary to enliven a downtown space,” stated Cole. “We have increasingly builders, together with builders from out of city and out of state, who see Billings as a terrific place to develop downtown property, and the main target has been on residential properties, however once more, you have got to have the ability to accommodate canines with the intention to entice folks to your downtown. So, it is an issue we have to unravel.”
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The proposed canine park could be comparatively easy to assemble, in line with Cole. The alley is already enclosed on two sides, and the park would make the most of synthetic turf and an put in water system. The primary concern, Cole stated, is guaranteeing that the alley stays practical for emergency autos and that the mandatory permits are secured.
“All of that must be engineered into the method,” stated Cole. “You place down gravel, you place down synthetic turf, you have got water to scrub the realm, so it is all very doable, however it is going to value cash.”
Nonetheless, with no funding allotted within the metropolis’s park growth funds for the challenge, Cole acknowledged that the park’s creation would rely on non-public donations and the cooperation of the potential new constructing proprietor to develop into a actuality.
The necessity for extra canine parks in Billings was echoed by a number of residents on Friday at Centennial Canine Park on the West Finish.
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“It is superb. It is so good to get to get out and never be on the opposite finish of the leash and allow them to run round and socialize,” stated Jonathan Warren whereas along with his canines “We would like to see one out like between fiftieth and sixtieth, simply with all the homes being constructed on the market, and the truth that all of the little neighborhoods, it is arduous to interconnect these with a strolling go and plenty of high-speed restrict roads with out sidewalks on.”
For residents like Mikal Younger, the potential addition of extra canine parks could be a welcome change, particularly nearer to her home.
“I reside in Midtown. I am off of seventeenth. I come down over right here to (Centennial) as a result of it is nearer than going out to the Heights,” stated Younger together with her canine, Mojito. “If we solely have a pair and we’re rising, it is good to have them pop up as a result of we’re turning into extra canine pleasant. You see extra canines. It is a terrific thought.”
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Whereas the alleyway canine park remains to be within the early planning levels, town’s new retail area sale might see the introduction of a brand new canine park as Billings continues to develop.
“At this level, we do not know that it is a fully doable challenge. We have to do this preliminary investigation, however I am cautiously optimistic that this concept goes to get traction and brighten the Billings of tomorrow,” stated Cole.
