Site set for Carol Stream's first dog park

Twenty acres on the northwest corner of Kuhn Road and North Avenue will be the site for Carol Stream's first dog park, park district officials said Tuesday.

Although design plans are in the early stages, the Illinois Department of Transportation, which owns the land, has agreed to a five-year, no-cost lease with the park district, said Director of Marketing Services Julie Vogl.

Preliminary grading work and tree removal at the parcel has been done thus far. The location is just north of Red Hawk Park and just south of Barbara O'Rahilly Volunteer Park.

"There are a lot of dog owners in the area and no place they can just let their dogs run," Vogl said.

Vogl said the park district is trying to find a partner that would share in the cost of running the dog park. She declined to name the partner.

"The critical turning point is going to be this potential partner and them deciding if they are in or out," she said. "Once we know that, we can move forward."

In the meantime, park district officials have met with other agencies in the area that operate dog parks to get a sense of what they will include, Vogl said.

In February, voters approved a $37 million referendum and some of that money will go toward the park but Vogl said how much will not be known until they move beyond the planning stages and into engineering and design work.