By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City’s proposed dog park will give the four-legged denizens their first official canine playground in town, but will also include an attraction for the two-legged residents.
The city is applying to the Cape May County Open Space Board for a grant to fund the project. Early estimates for the cost of the dog park were around $200,000, but now the city plans to apply for a grant in the range of $800,000 to $900,000.
While the focus will be on the dogs, the park will also have something for the human visitors. Sea Isle plans to build a handicap-accessible observation tower high enough to peer over the surrounding dunes and marshlands, providing panoramic views of the ocean to the east and the back bays to the west.
“That would be terrific,” city spokeswoman Katherine Custer said of the waterfront views.
Meanwhile, City Business Administrator George Savastano said the county is expected to make a decision on the grant by the end of the year. Even if the grant is denied, the city is expected to move forward with the project, he said.
“We felt it was in the taxpayers’ best interest to see if we could get the county to fund at least part of it,” Savastano said while giving an update on the dog park during a City Council meeting Tuesday.
The city already has a relationship with the county open space board for recreation projects. This year, the board provided the money for Sea Isle’s nearly $1 million fishing pier and kayak launch site that opened May 1 on the bayfront near 60th Street.
After considering a number of possible locations, Sea Isle officials have settled on city-owned property in the north end of town on Landis Avenue near Seventh Street for the dog park.
A timetable has not yet been announced for building the project. Custer said Sea Isle is “potentially looking at completion by autumn 2022.”
Mayor Leonard Desiderio and his daughter, Carmela, visited dog parks in Ocean City, Wildwood, Upper Township and Egg Harbor Township for some ideas on amenities that would make Sea Isle’s canines and their owners happy.
A dog lover himself, the mayor and his family have a 2-year-old shih tzu named Bruno.
Sea Isle’s dog park will be fenced in for safety and divided into separate sections for small dogs and big ones, Desiderio said in an interview in June.
The proposed site is next to the wetlands and away from any homes. Sea Isle is asking the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for permission to build part of the project closer to the wetlands to make it larger, but not actually on them.
“That would give us the opportunity to expand the park itself,” Custer said.
Parking was another consideration why the city decided to build the dog park on Landis Avenue near Seventh Street. Two new parking lots were built in the same area in 2019 as part of a restriping plan to make the Landis Avenue corridor safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Pet owners using the dog park would be able to use the same parking lots.
Knowing that many families choose their vacation destination based on its pet-friendly reputation, Sea Isle has been looking to build its first dog park for years.
During the quiet offseason months, the city lifts its ban of dogs on the beaches, giving canines and their owners a chance to get out and frolic on the wide-open shoreline.
But come summer, the vacationers take over the beaches and dogs lose their sandy playground. Without a place to call their own, dogs and their owners usually are out walking along the streets and sidewalks in the summer for exercise.
Sea Isle resident Mark Cardaci, who lives on Cini Avenue, said he is interested in the park for his two mixed-breed dogs, Blue, 16, and Kevin, 9.
In the winter, Cardaci takes his “two seniors,” as he calls them, for walks on the beaches. In the summer, though, the dogs get their exercise during walks on the street and sidewalks between Cardaci’s home and the city’s recycling center a few blocks away.
“We are walking down to the dump and back,” Cardaci said on a recent day. “In winter, they go on the beaches. But for now, the exercise for them is less and less.”
A communitywide survey conducted in 2015 included responses from local residents urging the city to create more recreation attractions, including a dog park. About 40 percent of the approximately 3,000 respondents to the survey supported a dog park.
