Members of the nonprofit group, Friends of the Vero Beach Dog Exercise Area, Inc., and other advocates of establishing an fenced-in, off-lease dog park in MacWilliam Park, move a step closer today to seeing their dream become a reality. After three hours of discussion and public input, City Council directed City Manager Jim O’Connor to negotiate a lease on the land. The lease will first be presented to the Recreation Commission before coming back to the Council. Final approval could be several months away.
The decision to move forward in negotiating a lease on the three-acre site followed much public comment, including a presentation by Bob Joy, who spoke for the nonprofit group seeking the lease the land. “We never dreamed support for the park would be this overwhelming, Joy said, as the group presented the Council with 2,700 signed petitions in support of the dog park.
“Let’s make this happen, and let’s not take another 10 or 15 years,” said Mayor Dick Winger.
Not all of those who addressed the issue were supportive of the proposed dog park. Most who objected raised questions about whether dog park is the “highest and best use” of the land.
Councilwoman Pilar Turner pressed her fellow council members to first consider other possible sites, ones that are not as valuable for potential private or public development. When Turner urged the Council to survey other possible dog park sites, Councilwoman Amelia Graves asked how boaters staying at the City Marina would get a different park, presumably on the mainland. Turner responded, “GoLine.” Graves then asked, “Do they allow dogs?”
Jim Welles, who leads the nonprofit group, explained that with a long-term lease the organization can raise funds to pay for fencing and other improvements, such as mulched paths, landscaping and water fountains. Welles said the group would assume all costs, include the cost of ongoing maintenance.
It had been widely presumed a lease on the land would require a zoning change and voter approval in a referendum. It was revealed today that because the land is already set aside in the City Charter as park land, the Council is free to sign a long-term lease allowing the land to be used as a dog park.
Indian River Guardian 
Fabulous photo, and symbolic of how much dogs have done for the human race since time immemorial. It’s hard to believe that anybody on the City Council would even consider seeking another inferior site to the one they presently enjoy, as do their owners.
There is always one bad egg on any committee. Just because you own two dogs doesn’t make you a dog lover. I think everyone has thoroughly seen through this rhetoric.
Pilar Turner’s Dog Day Morning. First, 2700 petitions in favor of the dog park are delivered to the council by a beautiful dog. Her day got worse when she was informed that no referendum is needed to permit a dog park since the land is all ready set aside in Vero’s city charter. All that is needed is a lease. In her misguided attempt to develop the park she had the audacity to tell dog owners to take their pets to another park on the Go Line bus. Jan. 7th, will be remembered as a day the people and their dogs celebrated a justified victory and for Pilar Turner, sadly, an embarrassment .