A new leash-free dog park is coming to Coral Gables. Here’s where it will be
Coral Gables will soon have another dog park, a win for residents who signed a petition and packed City Commission chambers to make it happen.
Applause broke out in the chambers this week after Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara voted to create a dog-friendly park in a city-owned grassy area at the corner of Segovia Street and University Drive, adjacent to the Coral Gables library.
The unanimous 3-0 vote came late Tuesday after city leaders saw overwhelming support from residents who packed the commission chambers, an unusual sight at City Hall, and collected over 225 signatures to petition for the dog-friendly space. Commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez left the meeting ahead of the vote due to scheduling conflicts, though both indicated that they also support the project.
“It’s been something that we as a neighborhood have wanted for a long time,” Coral Gables resident and dog lover Mary Powell told the Miami Herald after the vote as she hugged and celebrated with other neighbors. Powell led the petition efforts, which collected over 200 signatures within a week, and also spoke at the meeting.
The city already allows leashed dogs at 27 of its over 60 parks. Dogs can be off-leash in the sandy dog park section of Salvadore Park at 1120 Andalusia Ave. and at a fenced dog park that is part of the 1505 Ponce development. An off-leash park for small dogs is also adjacent to the Villa Valencia condo complex. The Underline, which is still a work in progress, will also have a dog park.
But residents who live near the city’s library wanted a nearby dedicated space for their pups to run around.
“It’s important for golfers to have a golf course. It’s important for children to have their own play areas. It’s important for dogs to have their own parks,” Powell told the Herald. “Putting all of those things together and mixing it around can sometimes make it dangerous.”
The future dog park
Powell found an ally in Anderson, who supported residents’ efforts and wants to create more dog parks across the city. Anderson said the park would be funded by private resident donations and presented a conceptual idea of what the 1.38-acre fenced dog park could look like.
She envisions a shaded area with synthetic dog-friendly grass for small pups, plus two large areas with real grass for large dogs. A 25-foot wide buffer zone, filled with native Florida plants, would separate the park from homes. Irrigation systems, gates, and water and pet waste stations would also be installed.
“Having this amenity in our city will help all our neighbors have a place to socialize and let their dogs have a good time,” Anderson told the Herald after the vote.
Lago, who has led efforts to create more parks in the city , and Lara shared similar sentiments during the meeting and thanked residents for being involved in the process.
“Our community has been asking for more spaces where residents and their pets can enjoy the outdoors, and we’re proud to deliver,” Lago said in a statement to the Herald. “ ... We’re grateful for Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson’s leadership in championing this effort and excited to see this addition enhance the quality of life for our residents and their four-legged family members.”
Commissioners Castro and Fernandez left the meeting ahead of the vote due to scheduling conflicts. Both said they were not informed until the last minute that the topic would be discussed at 6 p.m., a decision that was made to accommodate a lengthy midday recess of the meeting so that commissioners could attend the funeral of Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Deputy Devin Jaramillo, who previously served with Coral Gables police for nearly four years.
Fernandez said he would have voted in support of the dog park if he saw that residents wanted it and neighbors supported it.
Castro, who in March sponsored a resolution that was unanimously passed to look into creating an off-leash dog park at 301 Majorca Ave. and who hosts a monthly dog walk along Miracle Mile, said she also supports the University Drive dog park.
How residents united
Powell is part of a large group of residents who became friends while taking their dogs to walk and play over five years ago at Catalonia Park, which several years ago became a popular and unofficial leash-free park. It quickly became a spot to get fresh air, exercise and socialize from a safe distance during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were staying home and social distancing. But it also angered some residents who lived in the area.
Anderson at the time recommended creating an off-leash area at Salvadore Park for the city’s furry residents. When Dog Run Park at Salvadore Park opened in 2023, some residents realized they wanted a dog park closer to home. Not everyone in the Gables has a car or, like Powell, wants to drive across the city to take their dogs to a park.
So Powell, a “born and raised Washingtonian” did what is natural to her: She organized residents and collected signatures.
“You’ve got to build consensus, and then you’ve got to present it to the people that can bring it to the floor, and then when those two come together, you get a dog park,” she said.
