Parks board greenlights dog park design

Plans are moving along for an off-leash dog park off Rizzo Lane in Belgrade’s far north.

Members of the Belgrade Regional Parks, Trails, and Recreation Board voted unanimously this month to approve the design for the Brandi A. Crawford Community Dog Park, subject to final approval by city staff.

The park will be constructed mostly with private funds on an empty, city-owned field in the Henson Subdivision. The man spearheading the effort, William “Bill” Feniger, has been working to secure funding to help move the project forward. The architect on the project is Tim Stefan.

The city would pay for the installation of concrete approaches from the road to the park sidewalk to provide vehicle access, according to a staff report to the board by Jordan Green, city parks director.

“These were not part of the original design requirements, but are recommended for installation by Belgrade engineering,” Green wrote. “As these were not part of the initial requirements, Mr. Feniger requests these be installed by the City. I have spoken to Public Works, and we are able to construct these in-house or very cheaply. Staff recommends approval for the additional construction to be performed by the City, as this was not an original requirement and the City has the capacity to complete the work.”

Feniger’s team has submitted design documents to the city, but those are subject to changes, Green told the board members at their June 4 meeting.

“Due to the timing of the final submittal, staff have not had the time to perform a final review on the submitted design,” Green wrote. “As such, minor changes may be requested for design elements to meet requirements. The site design has been reviewed twice previously by staff, so only minor changes, if any, are anticipated.”

The park will be built in honor of Brandi Ann Crawford, who passed away in 2024 at age 44. She was a vet tech, commercial pilot, and also founded Mutts in the Mountains in Belgrade, which morphed into 4 Paws Pet Resort before it was sold and became Summit Pet Resort. She also ran an emergency pet hospital.

Crawford was devoted to pets and their owners and enriched the lives of many people and animals, according to people who knew her, such as her former employer, veterinarian Gordon Hardaway.

“She would take, oh, anywhere from six to 12 or 14 dogs for, 5- to 10-mile hikes in the mountains almost on a daily basis,” Hardaway told the parks board in January 2025 when the project was in its earliest stage. “So she wasn’t one of those that says, ‘Let me get a bunch of dogs and put them in a kennel and feed them.’ Her mission was to get them out and have fun.”

The park will be ADA-compliant, Green said. Being in compliance with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act would stave of potential litigation, he advised.

The next steps in the project will be for staff in various city departments to achieve the building permit requirements and right-of-way encroachment permits, according to Green. After these steps are complete, the city can give a work authorization date to Feniger’s team.

“And then basically schedule a preconstruction meeting with his contractor or general contractor to establish kind of our requirements and everything like that,” Green told the parks board. “So we would start this process and start moving forward as soon as y’all are ready.”

Green said “it’s highly likely” the park will be finished this summer.

“It depends on their funding, which I’m not privy to, really,” Green said. “I would say they are itching for a start date, though.”

Prior reporting on this project is available at www.belgrade-news.com.