Pet owners gather in Downtown Colorado Springs for parade and opening of new Antlers Dog Park

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Thursday, the Antlers Dog Park officially opened in downtown Colorado Springs.

To celebrate the grand opening, city planners and pet owners gathered for a parade starting on South Tejon Street, before walking together to the park on West Pikes Peak Avenue.

"It's always great to celebrate the success of opening a project, and celebrating all the hard work that went into it from the public process, all the citizen engagement, to actually going through the design and the construction of it," said David Deitemeyer, Project Manager for the Antlers Dog Park. "All of the people who live and work downtown now have a place to bring their dogs."

The Antlers Dog Park is one piece of an overarching project that began around five years ago.

Dietemeyer says in 2019, the Parks Department launched a master plan for updating and improving three historic Colorado Springs Parks -- Antlers Park, Acacia Park, and Alamo Square Park. One part of that master plan was this dog park.

The dog park is about 16,000 square feet with an enclosed area for small dogs and one for large dogs where owners can take their pets off-leash.

Deitemeyer says they were intentional in creating a space that was accessible for everyone, so they have new parking stalls directly in front of the facility and a new sidewalk to access it.