Queen Creek relocating town dog park, doubling size

During the next few months, residents will have a new and improved park — in a familiar spot — for their canine fur babies.

With a new police headquarters being built at the current Pocket Park for Pups near town hall, the dog hangout will be moved across the street to Founders’ Park.

“I really feel this is a true improvement to a dog park without getting crazy. We’re doubling the size. We’re adding more shade. We’re adding more access — a park that’s going to be a better experience with better turf, more open space, more seating,” Parks and Recreation Director Adam Robinson told the Queen Creek Town Council during an informational session at its Sept. 10 meeting.

The dog park’s name will also be changed.

“Pocket Park for Pups is a mouthful,” Robinson said. “We’re looking at Founders’ Park Dog Park … to simplify it and help answer where it’s at.”

The move has been in the works for months since it was announced the town will be constructing a new police headquarters where the dog park and recycling center currently sit.

In December, the council approved a more than $4.7 million design contract for the new police headquarters and a parking structure. Construction is estimated at more than $59.6 million, with the facilities set for completion sometime in 2028, according to the Queen Creek Police master plan.

In February, the council established budgets totaling more than $2.9 million for the dog park relocation and replacement playground equipment for Founders’ Park.

“Via discussions that we had there was preference to keep the current amenity in the town center,” Robinsons said. “When we talked about specifically moving this dog park, we looked at a couple of different properties and really nothing made as much sense as moving it across the street.”

Not only is Founders’ Park closer, but it also already has the needed infrastructure.

“It’s just kind of taking an existing space and improving it, which made it also fulfill that speed need as well,” Robinson said.

The recycling center’s current location will be closed permanently Monday, Sept. 29, and reopen at its new home, 22179 E. Ryan Road near Frontier Family Park, on Oct. 1.

The recycling area needed to be vacated by October or November so that staging area for constructing the new police headquarters could be set up. However, the current dog park will not close until the replacement across the street opens in mid-February.

As with the current park, there will be two separate sides and entries for large and active dogs and small and timid dogs. But in the new park, the large and small dog parks will be completely separate.

“One of the things we learned very quickly when we opened the first dog park, we had one gate … (and) those two different dogs don’t always intermix very well. We quickly created separate entrances and put a gate in the middle,” Robinson said. “But those entrances still were close enough to where our park rangers got called to help folks figure out how to get in. What we were able to do here is really separate those entrances.”

The dog park area itself will double in size compared with the current location. In addition, it will have two large canopies to provide shade. Trees are also being planted around the site.

The change Robinson was most excited about is that each section of dog park will have a mirror location, or cell, next to it. The cells will open on alternate weeks so one side can get a deep watering and recover as the other side is being used. This will allow for healthy grass year-round.

Currently, the Pocket Park for Pups has to close for a month each summer to allow new grass to grow. Temporary sites are set up during the closure.

“Dogs are really hard on grass … and then humans are bad on grass as well because they always tend to gather and stand in one spot and just kill it,” Robinson said. “I think we’re going to have a great turf experience every day for users here.”

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