Railyard Dogs

The Railyard Dogs

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole”    - Roger Caras

In July 2004, a group of downtown residents joined together with the Denver’s Environmental Health Department to educate dog owners in Commons Park about Denver’s leash laws.  Virtually every one of these dog owners asked about the possibility of an off-lease area somewhere downtown.

As a result, the same group of residents and interested neighbors joined together with a simple goal – finding a place for a dog to be a dog.  We found a location – a parcel of land that is just under an acre at 19^th and Bassett Street, just around the corned from Denver Skatepark and Commons Park .  Most of the land was already dedicated park land, and Denver Parks and Recreation didn’t have the funding to build it out. 

In 2006, The Railyard Dogs, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, was created to raise the funds to design and construct this park, and to otherwise improve the lives of Downtown Denver dogs.

The Railyard Dogs has changed its membership over the years as changes in staff in Parks and Recreation and Environmental Health have changed, and as our neighbors have changed.  But the mission has remained strong among the core members.

Design

“From the dog’s point of view, his master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog” – Mabel Louise Robinson

The design is now virtually complete, after exhaustive efforts to make sure this will be the best park it can be.  We knew we couldn’t have grass…it would have been destroyed before it ever had a chance to get started in a small urban park.  We thought of astro-turf, but found out quickly after research by members of our team in San Francisco that the EPA wouldn’t allow it.  So after consulting drainage and landscaping experts, we’ve come up with an elaborate system of where the surface is a sand and gravel mix that overlays varying sizes of gravel and cobble that will cause liquid dog waste to percolate through the material and be naturally cleaned before reaching the native sand below the park.  A much better solution than working its way into the Platte River .

In order to put this in place, we have to excavate a great deal of coal ash to make way for this high-tech soil, and the process of removing the old soil and replacing it with this system is expected to be at least half of the cost of the park.  But we all want it to be a clean and safe place for Fido to play, right?

Who is Working to Get this Park Done?

It takes a lot of people to get a park like this built.  Our current Board of Directors includes:

• Matt Mahoney - President
• Amy Cara - Vice President and Treasurer
• Chris Frampton - Director
• Brenda Smith - Director
• AJ Zabbia - Director

In addition to that, we have also have a broader group of people that have been pushing the park along.  Special thanks goes to the following people, and many more:

• Councilwoman Judy Montero (District 9) and Stephanie Syner
• The Honorable Mayor John Hickenlooper
• Scott Robson, Mark Bernstein and Lesley Roper with Parks and Recreation
• Denver's Attorney's Office
• Miller Rosenbluth LP
• ERM
• Studio InSite
• EDAW
• Encore Electric
• Western Proscapes
• Belair Excavating

Progress at the Park!

“Heaven goes by favor.  If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in” – Mark Twain

I know that many of you have been waiting patiently for this park to get done.  It is a lot more complicated than you might imagine, given the number of approvals we need to get both at the State and City level, and everything that comes with that. 

But we’re honestly almost there.  This is the first time that I’ve honestly been able to see the finish line since I joined the board as a founding member in 2006.  We are working through the formal agreements with the City now to allow us to donate the park improvements, and are working through final signoff on design with Parks, Denver Water, Denver Wastewater, Xcel Energy and the State of Colorado for environmental issues.  Final tweaks are being made to the design for these comments, and as soon as the agreement is approve by the City, we’ll make our final fundraising push.

Which leads me to our next point...we need your help!

Funding

“My goal in life is to be as good of a person as my dog thinks I am” - Unknown

We need your help!  The park is 80% funded, and we are ready to roll.  But we still need donations.  People are buying personalized bricks that will recognize you and/or your dog for years to come.  You’d hate to be left out when we’re all celebrating the park and seeing who helped to make it happen.  How sad would it be if your name wasn’t out there - or Fido’s.  You couldn’t let that happen, could you?  So donate now to make sure that your commitment to a great place for your best friend to play can be known to the world.