Plans call for Dearborn's first-ever dog park and four new soccer fields.

The Dearborn City Council Monday night approved a measure that paves the way for the city to continue to pursue a plan to add four new soccer fields and create the city’s first-ever dog park on a parcel of property along Gulley Road, just behind the Dearborn Racquet & Health Club and adjacent to Crowley Park.

The Council approved a land split in the Gulley industrial park area, giving the city permission to continue with its plans. In November 2008, city council approved purchase for $545,000 an “L” shaped piece of property that was part of the now-closed Michigan Employment Security Commission (MESC) lot and a portion of property behind the Dearborn Racquet club. The health club owners purchased the MESC property as part of their long range planning and then sold a portion of it to the city.

Costs for the fenced dog-park, four soccer fields, proper irrigation, a parking lot and construction of a new access road off of Gulley to the park would be about $500,000, an amount City Council would still need to approve. The funding is currently budgeted in a draft of the city’s fiscal year 2010 budget.

The new soccer fields and the new access road to them from Gulley Road would take some of the pressure off of Crowley Park and neighborhoods on soccer Saturdays in the Oxford and Telegraph area. Currently, there is only one entrance to Crowley Park off of Oxford Road. It would also allow the city to rotate use of the soccer fields as a way to keep them in better condition. To alleviate some of the concerns area residents have about creating a new access road off of Gulley into this park (currently sealed with a brick wall), city officials say the road would be gated, closing at 10 p.m. The road will not be a pass through into Crowley Park, city officials said.

Separately, the Dearborn Soccer Club granted the city $100,000 to repair a comfort station at Crowley Park and build a new 40-foot x 40-foot picnic shelter. The refurbished comfort station and picnic shelter will be opened this summer.

We think the planned soccer fields and dog park would be a nice addition to Dearborn’s current 43 parks. To have so much green space in a city as old and as large as Dearborn really is unheard of and we residents are fortunate.

Dearborn City Planner John Nagy sums the value of our parks up best: “The parks are the lungs of the city.”