New Dog Park Opens in Downtown Montgomery

A new development in downtown Montgomery will attract new visitors to the city’s entertainment and convention district: dogs.

City officials today joined River Region Rotarians and representatives from Pet and Playground Products to celebrate the official opening of Rotary Dog Park.

“The Rotary Dog Park is another welcome addition to our community enhancing the quality of life and adding to the overall vibrancy of our city,” Mayor Strange said. “We commend our local Rotary clubs, Pet and Playground Products and all of our City staff for bringing this vision to fruition. Not only do we anticipate Rotary Dog Park enhancing livability downtown for existing residents, but it will serve to entice future residents who may now more easily envision themselves moving downtown with their pets.”

Made possible through a partnership between the City, local Rotary chapters and developer Pet and Playground Products, Rotary Dog Park inhabits an existing greenspace adjacent to the parking deck at Montgomery City Hall at the corner of Coosa and Bibb Streets. Development officials chose the site due to its central location, size, treescape and underutilization. The park preserves the original fountain and mature flowering trees while introducing new infrastructure that includes fencing, pet facilities, drainage systems and more. This is only the first phase of development. The second phase will incorporate skills and agility training equipment.

“These four clubs and their combined membership chose to partner with the City of Montgomery and convert a section of this park into a dog park, and I say ‘chose’ because that’s what Rotarians do: we choose service over self,” Montgomery Sunrise Rotary Club President Jimmy Hill said. “The humanitarian work of Rotary, the work Rotary does to improve the lives of others, while it extends throughout the world, for us, it begins here at home. This place is going to the dogs, and that’s a really good thing.”

Pet and Playground Products, a national company based in the River Region and owned by Cloverdale resident Robert Price, provided all fencing, equipment and future agility amenities. The Eclectic, Alabama-based company has grown to serve not only the River Region but all of the United States by offering many turnkey outdoor solutions such as dog parks, playgrounds, outdoor music gardens and outdoor fitness solutions.