Council plans to explore options on Marne Highway and across from the school district administration building.
Mt. Laurel Township is still trying to sniff out the right location for its new dog park.
In the meantime, the township’s plans for a dog park on Mt. Laurel Road, across from Chapel Hill Road, came to an end at Mt. Laurel Council’s meeting on Dec. 5 when council officially repealed the resolution designating a new dog park for that site.
The move came as more than a dozen residents who live near the site attended the meeting in opposition to the proposed location, with officials noting that prior to the meeting even more residents opposed to the location had also sent emails and made phone calls to the township.
The idea to build at that location, which is open space land the township owns, was a result of the township receiving $75,000 through a grant from Burlington County to pay for fencing, trees, benches and other costs associated with a dog park.
Yet even before residents attended the Dec. 5 meeting to oppose the proposed location, council was already considering other options.
Work was originally scheduled to begin at the site in October, but council halted work when the Burlington County Bridge Commission offered to help the township apply for grants that could be used to remediate arsenic levels at another piece of township-owned land on Marne Highway, thereby allowing a new dog park for that site instead.
“There’s very little recreation on that side of town, there is not a dog park on that side of town, and I still think that would be an ideal location,” Mayor Linda Bobo said.
However, Bobo noted the township could still be a year or two away from any dog park at the Marne Highway site, as the township has not yet received any grants for remediation work, which would have to be carried out first.
“It’s a significant timeline we’re dealing with for that site,” Bobo said.
Council also directed the township’s professionals to explore other potential sites for the new dog park, including another piece of township-owned land on Mt. Laurel Road, across from the Mt. Laurel School District’s administration building.
Acting township manager Meredith Tomczyk said the township’s public works director and director of municipal services had each already suggested the land as potential space for the new park.
“That property had horses on it and it never disturbed anyone, and there are no homes by it, so they feel that might be a better location,” Tomczyk said.
As for the original grant to build the dog park on Mt. Laurel Road at the location across from Chapel Hill Road, Tomczyk said those funds are still available for when the township decides a new location, although Burlington County would like the grant closed out by the spring.
Also of note from the Dec. 5 meeting was the absence of Councilman Jim Keenan, who was the only council member who opposed the township stopping work for the dog park in October at the original site.
Although Keenan was not at the meeting, an email he sent prior regarding the issue was read into the record by township solicitor Tyler Prime.
In his email, Keenan said there would have only been three homes that backed-up specifically to the park if it were built at the original site, and there would have been a “substantial” buffer between a fence and those homes, along with additional tree plantings.
“The township purchases these properties to benefit all of the residents of the township and does not purchase them to provide buffers or a private backyard for certain residents,” Keenan’s email read.
With Keenan’s absence, the remaining four members of council voted in favor of repealing the resolution designating a dog park at the original site across from Chapel Hill Road.
