A plan to severely shrink the size and change the rules of metro Denver’s largest off-leash dog open space drew a feisty two-legged crowd to the Westminster City Park Recreation Center Wednesday night. Three hundred people packed the building and another 100 watched from a live stream feed as city leaders explained why they are considering banning dogs from having the run of the beloved Westminster Hills Open Space, or WHOS.
The plan would be to decrease the the off-leash area from 400 acres to 33 acres squeezed to a corner of the existing space.
The mid-week meeting was called to explain why.
Environmental impact a messy business
Results of a city study on the stunning open space site found that unbridled off-leash dog activity has affected ecological growth in the open space, from preventing wildlife habitation to an increase in nitrogen and E. coli from dog waste.
“There’s wear and tear on the landscape, invasive plants are taking over and we have a poop problem,” said Parks, Recreation and Libraries Director Tomas Herrera-Milsher. “Yes I said poop.”
Milsher told the hundreds of mostly dog lovers at Wednesday night’s packed question and answer session that the park has become so overrun with dog feces that workers annually haul 3,500 pounds of the stuff from underground vault receptacles set up for dog waste disposal.
“It’s enough to fill the huge swimming pool at city rec center,” said Herrera-Milsher. “You might say it’s a stinky mess.”
In response, dog lovers took to a lone microphone placed at the front of the room to fight back.
“Ya’ll kicked over a a hornet’s nest with this one,” said a cowboy-hat-wearing resident who identified only as Hans.
“I shop for dog parks not school districts,” said one resident. Another woman who drives from Denver said that she was considering moving to Westminster just to roam the hills with her dogs unleashed, but: “if you take the park away, I won’t be moving here.”
“People are either going to be sitting on the couch getting fat or they’re going to be going to the dog park,” said another. “This is the pride and joy of Westminster.’
Still, one bicyclist said that dogs chase him while he’s riding and neighbors who live across the street from WHOS complained of nightmare parking congestion, especially on the weekends.
“We love animals, but we need signs. It’s a safety issue,” he said.
Herrera-Milsher agreed that through the years, the open space has invited so much traffic congestion that the city has increased the parking area six times.
Empassioned response
Since Feb. 1, there’s been a landslide of public comment, mostly in favor of keeping the park off-leash. Others said that they supported the experts’ findings, and some could live with the off-leash area decreased from 400 acres, but wanted more than a postage stamp corner. Still others don’t want the dogs there at all.
A Change.org petition has garnered more than 5,700 signatures, online public comment has been through the roof and the City of Westminster received 1,000 emails about the hot-button issue.
The park as been around since the year 2000 when the city of Westminster established the pilot program to establish an off-leash dog area. At the time it was only 27 acres of WHOS land. Eight years later, the off-leash dog space exploded to 1,000 acres, but a year later it was whittled down to 400 acres after some nasty encounters between canines and coyotes. Additionally, Bubonic plague was infecting prairie dogs.
Today, one million people visit WHOS every year, perhaps to the detriment of a space which according to city code is designated as more of a nature reserve than a place to run domestic pets.
Deja Woof
Six years ago, a similar situation happened in Evergreen when a 107 acre unleashed mountain dog park near Elk Meadow was shut down by Jefferson County in part due to dangerous levels of E coli which was found in the streams.
“It was complete BS. They could never prove it,” said Betsy Rich, a former ABC Producer who owned two Bernese Mountain Dogs, Sam and Mojo.
Before it was shuttered, 400 dogs and their walkers visited the stunning mountain off leash area at 31234 Stagecoach Boulevard around day.
Intent on saving four-legged freedom, Rich spent every Tuesday night for two years attending Jefferson County Commissioner’s meetings.
“We appealed to Jefferson County Open Space, who ponied up $1.2 million to help the Evergreen Parks and Recreation Department come up with a solution,” she said.
Her grassroots movement, #Barkback, even found another spot near the old one which had expansive acreage and no neighbors to complain about it. But the parks and recreation folks said the terrain was too steep and in September 2022, the idea was abruptly shut down.
“We lost the heart of the community when we lost our dog park. That’s where the community met. That’s where your friends were. People found comfort there,” she said.
Rich advised the dog lovers fighting for WHOS to use facts over emotion as their weapons because “it’s hard, but you can’t give up.”
Now that the public has had a chance to comment, the department will form an advisory team of concerned people who will bring differing opinions to the table. Recommendations from the panel will then be brought to the Westminster City Council by July.
“We’re gonna get her done,” said Herrera-Milsher. “We’re not messing around here.”