A sliver of green downtown, sandwiched between busy city streets, is being turned into a dog park.
The Downtown Partnership and the city are working together to turn the tenth of a grassy acre, city property, into a fenced-in park for people to let their dogs off-leash.
Though much smaller than the city's two existing dog parks - in Canton and another in Locust Point that just opened a few weeks ago - this would be Baltimore's third spot where dogs can legally be off a leash.
"We saw the need," said Bob Dengler, the Downtown Partnership's vice president of capital projects. "Even before this area was fenced in, people were already walking their dogs there."
The grassy strip is between Fayette Street, Park Avenue and Baltimore and Liberty streets.
Baltimore's center city, in recent years, has become decidedly residential - with apartments and even a grocery store moving into what used to be mainly office space. The Downtown Partnership estimates that within a few-block radius of the new dog park, there are at least 1,000 apartment units.
Also, Hotel Monaco, which welcomes guests with pets, recently opened two blocks away.
At larger parks across the city, like Patterson Park, Riverside Park and Wyman Park, dog owners have been negotiating with the city's parks department, hoping to get either official dog parks or designated off-leash hours when dogs could run free.
Though the downtown park will be more of a dog walk than a run, kind of a traffic island essentially, the area will be completely fenced, it will be landscaped, and there will be water access and dog waste disposal bags. There are also flowering cherry trees.
"It's the best we could do for a dog park in the center of downtown," Dengler said.
The city's transportation department built the fence and installed a ramp to make the park accessible to the handicapped, while the Downtown Partnership paid for the fence and will maintain the park.
Downtown Partnership spokesman Mike Evitts said depending on people's response to the park, the organization might be able to add benches and a drinking station for dogs.
Crews have finished most of the fencing and have started landscaping. Dengler hopes the park can open in about two weeks.
